Business of Media
Sky New Zealand hires Jarden for strategic review following buyer interest
New Zealand-based broadcaster Sky Network Television has hired Jarden to embark on a strategic review after receiving approaches from potential buyers in the past year including at least one group out of Australia, reports The Australian’s Bridget Carter in the DataRoom column.
DataRoom understands that the interest has come from private equity groups in the Australia and New Zealand market as well as global and strategic parties, with one Australian suitor holding talks.
DataRoom understands that New Zealand telecommunications provider Spark held talks with Sky about a transaction almost six months ago, while about 18 months ago, telecommunications conglomerate Comcast, which owns Britain’s Sky Group and NBCUniversal, is understood to have made approaches to buy the business as part of an extension to its Sky business in Britain.
A logical party to run the ruler over the business would be the American multinational mass media company Discovery, the recent buyer of the Mediaworks television arm, which includes free-to-air television broadcasters across the Tasman Three, and Bravo.
US antitrust lawsuits against Facebook thrown out by federal judge
A US federal judge dismissed antitrust lawsuits the federal government and most states filed against Facebook, a major win for the company before the cases barely got off the ground, reports The Wall Street Journal.
US District Judge James Boasberg in Washington granted the social-media giant’s requests to dismiss lawsuits filed by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general in December.
Judge Boasberg said the FTC’s lawsuit was “legally insufficient” because it didn’t plead enough allegations to support monopolisation claims against Facebook. The judge, however, said the commission can try again and gave it 30 days to attempt to file an amended lawsuit.
Starting grid: Archer Capital’s V8 Supercars sales process gathers pace
The competition for Archer Capital’s V8 Supercars is gathering pace, with suitors told to lob their first round bids in a week’s time, reports The Australian’s Bridget Carter.
Indicative, non-binding offers are understood to be due on July 7 and so far, the expectation is that the bids are expected to come from Australian Racing Group, which is owned by Brian Boyd and John McMellan from Payce Property along with well-known racing identities Garry and Barry Rogers.
Another racing car identity is Mark Skaife and he is also said to be making a tilt for the business, along with Boost Mobile founder Peter Adderton and winery owner Paul Morris.
Adore Beauty’s experiment: brands itself retail and media company
Adore Beauty has branded itself part retailer, part media company as it looks to double down on its content offering to strengthen its connection with consumers, reports The AFR’s Miranda Ward.
The $429.21 million ASX-listed company had 687,000 active customers – those who made an order in the past 12 months – in the nine months ending March, and uses content across social media channels to bring customers to the brand and one step closer to clicking “check out now” on their shopping cart.
Adore Beauty chief marketing officer Dan Ferguson said the online retailer, famous for sending a Tim Tam to customers with every order, has effectively become a content creator in its own right due to a desire to be authentic with its customers.
“We see ourselves as a retail and media company, increasingly so,” he said.
Adore Beauty has branded itself part retailer, part media company as it looks to double down on its content offering to strengthen its connection with consumers.
Adore Beauty’s podcast Beauty IQ Uncensored has been downloaded 2 million times, its YouTube channel has had more than 3 million views, it has 185,000 followers on Instagram and 12,000 fans on TikTok.
News Brands
Janet Albrechtsen on Jon Faine: No place for provincial point scoring in Covid crisis
It’s bad enough that Twitter is a putrid trough of polarisation where angry people sup for repeated hits of unplugged outrage. But please, can we keep that trash away from serious newspapers? asks Janet Albrechtsen in The Australian.
When former ABC journalist Jon Faine decided to bring the stench of Twitter to readers of The Age, he did readers and the paper a disservice. He let down the best interests of the country, too.
There will always be brutal, even offensive, political disagreements between opposing sides. Without that, democracy would wither. But Faine’s good Jon/bad Jon schtick revealed him as a purveyor of outrage, stoking division and polarisation between two states as millions of people across Sydney and its regions entered a two-week lockdown.
NSW and Victoria lockdown coverage reveals much about COVID politics
Media coverage of the first few days of the COVID-19 Delta variant outbreak in New South Wales has been markedly different from that of the most recent lockdown in Victoria, comments Melbourne academic Denis Muller in Nine newspapers.
The most noticeable difference is that the media focus in NSW has been primarily informational: the growth and spread of cases; the lockdown rules. The political element has been secondary: should the lockdown have been imposed sooner and harder?
By contrast, when Victoria entered its fourth lockdown a month ago, the media focus was primarily political: what is wrong with Victoria that it always seems to be where lockdowns happen? Information took second place.
Fox News fined $1m by New York City Human Rights Commission
Fox News Channel will pay a $1 million fine to the New York City Human Rights Commission as part of a settlement related to its previous handling of sexual harassment and retaliation claims. The fine is the largest in the Commission’s history, it said Tuesday, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
“With this settlement, the Commission not only ordered the largest civil penalty in the Commission’s history, but has mandated dramatic and critical policy changes at Fox News Network,” said chair and commissioner of the NYC Commission on Human Rights Carmelyn P. Malalis in a statement.
Malalis added: “The Commission takes all allegations of sexual harassment, gender-based discrimination, and retaliation very seriously and our settlement today demonstrates that in New York City no one is above the law. Every New Yorker, whether in a newsroom or lunchroom, deserves to be treated with dignity and respect in their workplace.”
Television
Australia’s Got Talent postponed: A-list international judges sent home
Filming for Australia’s Got Talent has been postponed amid Sydney’s Covid-19 outbreak and new restrictions, with a question mark hovering over what will happen with this year’s two international celebrity judges, reports News Corp’s Bella Fowler.
AGT was due to begin shooting last week in Sydney, but filming was put on hold as the city was plunged into lockdown over the weekend, with multiple states now battling growing virus clusters.
News.com.au understands US actor Neil Patrick Harris – who recently celebrated his 48h birthday in quarantine – and British singer Alesha Dixon will head home following the decision, despite just completing their mandatory two-week hotel stint in order to appear on the judging panel.
Australian Survivor contestant: ‘They’re going to be thinking I’m a dumb ex-footballer”
Footy champion Gavin Wanganeen has revealed his ambition to win and warned he’s not to be underestimated ahead of his appearance on Australian Survivor, reports News Corp’s Jackie Epstein.
The AFL Brownlow medallist is a surprise contender on the Brains v Brawn series of Channel 10’s tough reality TV show.
“I made my mark on football and I’d love to be able to make my mark on Survivor,” Wanganeen says in a new promo that aired on Tuesday night.
“I want to be the first Indigenous person to win Australian Survivor, how cool will that be.
“I think people will definitely underestimate me because they’re going to be thinking he’s a dumb ex-footballer. When I’m ready to play the beast comes out so don’t mess with me.”
Publishing
Jill Biden makes cover of Vogue after Melania Trump was snubbed
In an interview accompanying her appearance on the cover of US Vogue as first lady, Dr Jill Biden said her husband was proving “a calmer president” than Donald Trump, reports The Guardian.
Biden appears on the cover of the US August edition – an honour which was denied Melania Trump, to her anger and that of her husband.
For her cover shoot, Biden wears a floral dress by Oscar de la Renta. In the accompanying interview, she says “part of the reason Joe was elected” is because “people wanted someone to come in and heal this nation, not just from the pandemic, which I feel Joe did by, you know, getting shots in everybody’s arms. But also … he’s just a calmer president. He lowers the temperature.”