With Sally Rawsthorne
1. Network Ten/Foxtel merger gets across the line
After covering it for the past 18 months, it’s great to finally see Foxtel acquire a 15% share in Network Ten and Ten take a 24.99% share in MCN, who will be selling ad space on Ten from now on. The two broadcasters’ combined power will be a good match for the Nine/Seven behemoths, and watching sports rights unfold will make for a good time for media tragics.
2. Suits
I’m late to the party, but that’s the great thing about Netflix – you can join in whenever! Suits follows high-flying lawyer Harvey Specter and his protégé Mike around the legal world, where they encounter countless problems – the least of which is that Mike isn’t actually qualified as a lawyer.
3. Two years of The Guardian in Australia
June 2013 was when The Guardian launched here as a digital-only publication, in response to the demands of the Australian response. Having been a keen reader ever since, I’m happy to see the website still building audience numbers and sitting pretty inside Nielsen’s Top 10 news sites in May. The diversity of voices that it promotes and a new, user-friendly interface keeps me going back for more.
4. The Killing Season
Sarah Ferguson proved her interviewing prowess when she filled in for Leigh Sales on flagship ABC program 7:30 while Sales was on maternity leave. The Killing Season, a two-part miniseries examining the fight for Labor (and Australian) leadership between Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard further proves that Ferguson is one of the very best journalists in the country – and not one that we’d like to be on the wrong side of! Audiences seemed to agree, with close to 1m viewers for each part.
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5. Hamish and Andy’s sneaky return to drive
Having worked hard to build an audience all year, ARN’s Hughesy and Kate and Nova’s Kate, Tim and Marty must be less than impressed with the return of SCA’s Hamish and Andy… especially given their return the week before survey starts again. Any midyear holiday dreams must be fading fast at North Ryde and Pyrmont.
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