Welcome to 2023!
Let’s be honest – keeping track of what’s happening in the world isn’t exactly the highest priority when breaking open a Christmas cracker or taking a dip in the pool at a New Years’ party.
Whether you took time off over the break to switch your phone off, or were working through the holidays, here is a roundup of some of the major media stories that broke over the festive period.
Business of Media
ACMA finds Four Corners “materially misled” audiences – ABC’s Sarah Ferguson calls the decision “nonsensical”
After a year long investigation, ACMA found that the ABC’s Four Corners “breached accuracy and fair and honest dealing requirements of its Code of Practice” in the two part episode Fox and the Big Lie.
The episodes, broadcast in August 2021, investigated Fox News’ reporting of Donald Trump‘s Presidency, interviewing both commentators and former executives of Fox News.
ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin said in a statement that: “By omitting key information, the ABC did not give its audience the opportunity to make up their own minds about Fox News.
“Both audiences and participants are entitled to the full picture. In this case, by omitting information the ABC did not do justice to the story or provide all relevant facts to its audience.”
Sarah Ferguson, host of Fox and the Big Lie, then responded to the ruling in a written piece for the ABC, saying that the ruling will “raise questions about the regulator’s understanding of journalism.”
Addressing all of the points raised by ACMA, Ferguson concluded by saying that the piece upheld the ABC’s “values of public interest journalism.”
[Read the ACMA statement here]
[Read Sarah Ferguson’s reply here]
Musk to relax Twitter’s political ad ban
The latest move from Elon Musk‘s time at the helm of Twitter is to wind back a three year old ban on political advertising.
Just after the New Year, Twitter announced that it would allow political figures to advertise on the platform, to “facilitate public conversation around important topics.”
The ban was originally brought in during 2019, as Donald Trump ramped up his re-election campaign. Jack Dorsey, who was Twitter’s CEO at the time, said that the ban was due to the fact that “political message reach should be earned, not bought.”
Plans to privatise UK’s Channel 4 are formally abandoned
Over in the UK, a planned sale of Channel 4 that was originally proposed 18 months ago has been scrapped.
The broadcaster will continue to be owned by the state, with UK culture secretary, Michelle Donelan, saying that the channel is a “British success story and a linchpin of our booming creative industries.”
Going ahead, Channel 4 will now be allowed to borrow more money, and be allowed to create programs in-house. Up until now, Channel 4 was barred from creating shows of its own.
News Brands
Guardian Australia faces cyberattack
After spending the year reporting on a number of highly publicised security breaches, Guardian Australia’s parent company – Guardian Media Group – fell victim to their own cyberattack just before the year ended.
The hack began on December 20, with the ransomware attack affecting the company’s technology across global offices.
In Australia, Guardian staff that were working throughout the holiday period were told to work from home as a precaution.
At the time, Guardian Media Group chief executive, Anna Bateson, and editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, told staff that: “We are continuing to publish globally to our website and apps and although some of our internal systems are affected, we are confident we will be able to publish in print tomorrow. Our technology teams have been working to deal with all aspects of this incident, with the vast majority of our staff able to work from home as we did during the pandemic.”
ACM sells South Australian and Queensland titles to Star News Group
As reported by the ABC’s Lucas Forbes and Bec Whetham, Australian Community Media has sold 14 of its titles to Star News Group.
The South Australian titles changing hands are: The Border Chronicle, Naracoorte Herald, Port Lincoln Times, The Islander, The Murray Valley Standard, The Recorder, The Victor Harbour Times, The Transcontinental, Whyalla News, the Coastal Leader, and The Flinders Times.
The Queensland titles changing hands are Beaudesert Times, Goondiwindi Argus, and North West Star.
Speaking about the acquisition, Star News Group managing director Paul Thomas said that “We really want to breathe new life into those historic titles, provide a really great product in local communities and get more people buying the paper.
“It’s very early days but now we’ll be offering jobs to all of the staff that are currently working for ACM.”
The Sun apologises for Jeremy Clarkson’s article on Meghan Markle
Just before Christmas, UK newspaper The Sun formally apologised for publishing a column written by Jeremy Clarkson about the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle. The column made the point that Clarkson “hated” Markle, and included a reference to a Game of Thrones scene, saying that Markle should be marched naked through the streets.
The UK’s Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) received 17,500 complaints about the article – the most it had ever received since its inception in 2014.
“We at The Sun regret the publication of this article and we are sincerely sorry,” the newspaper said in a statement. The column has since been removed from The Sun’s website.
Television
Grand Designs heads to FTA – without Peter Maddison
As reported by Nine Publishing’s Karl Quinn, Foxtel’s iconic home-building show, Grand Designs Australia, is set to leave the streamer for free to air TV.
Whilst no confirmation has been made about the new home of Grand Designs, Quinn suggests that industry sources have their money on the ABC. Production company Fremantle is reportedly several months into filming the new season.
Having been a part of the show since its 2010 launch, architect Peter Maddison won’t be making the transition, confessing that “It’s a strange feeling.”
“I feel like the brand is tied to me, and leaving it is difficult,” he says. “But I’ve always understood it’s going to happen at some stage. It’s lasted a lot longer than I thought it would … It’s been an incredible journey,” Maddison told Quinn.
Speaking about the decision, Foxtel head of entertainment, Marshall Heald, said that Foxtel had “decided to not move forward with Grand Designs as we evolve our genre mix of local commissions to reflect our new multiplatform product offering (Foxtel + Binge)”, despite being “very proud” of the show.
The Simpsons’ music editor Chris Ledesma passes away aged 64
Chris Ledesma, the man behind Lisa, It’s Your Birthday, The Monorail Song, and Who Needs The Kwik E Mart? – amongst many other songs you’ve probably sung along to – has passed away aged 64.
Ledesma was one of the show’s originals, having worked on every episode of The Simpsons since it first aired in 1989, all the way through to May 2022.
A recent episode of the show gave up the usual couch gag to show an animated version of Ledesma joining the Simpsons on the couch, with a title card reading “In loving memory of Chris Ledesma”.
Tributes have poured in from both fans and the people who work on The Simpsons, with screenwriter Al Jean writing on Twitter that Ledesma was “A wonderful, hard working, very talented man who will be missed by all he knew.”
Television pioneer Barbara Walters passes away aged 93
Barbara Walters, the US television broadcaster who became the first woman to anchor a primetime network news program and later launched The View, died on December 30 aged 93.
Tributes have been forthcoming from people in the news business around the world.
Walter first started in new media in the 1950s as a producer and first appeared on camera in the 1960s.
When CNN first released details Friday night in the US, the channel reported: “Barbara Walters passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by loved ones. She lived her life with no regrets. She was a trailblazer not only for female journalists but for all women,” Walters’ spokesperson Cindi Berger told CNN in a statement.
Walters joined ABC News in the US in 1976, anchoring an evening news program. In 1979 she was appointed co-host of the news program 20/20 where she stayed for 25 years and in 1997 she launched the daily daytime talk show The View where she was one of the original co-hosts.
ABC rings in 2023 with millions tuning in for fireworks
Bringing in the New Year, ABC celebrated alongside the millions of viewers tuning into its New Year’s Eve concert.
Judith Whelan, director of ABC Regional & Local, said: “It’s been wonderful to bring all Australians – and people all over the world – the iconic images of our New Year’s Eve celebrations on Sydney Harbour. No-one does NYE like we do – with live music, children’s entertainment and of course coverage of the magnificent fireworks display.
“I’d like to thank all the ABC staff who worked through the night to bring everyone every moment of the celebrations – across ABC TV, ABC iview, on social media and on ABC Radio – and once again, provided audio description of the fireworks for people who are blind or vision-impaired.”
ABC’s NYE TV broadcast coverage reached 3.2m viewers, while a total of 685K live streams were recorded via ABC iview.
TV and ABC iview Audiences:
• ABC’s NYE TV broadcast coverage reached 3.2m viewers.
• The Midnight Fireworks averaged 1.7m viewers, making the Midnight Fireworks the top ranked program of the day across all channels.
• The total ABC iview live stream results of NYE coverage increased again year-on-year, achieving a record NYE result of 685K
• The ABC TV channel on iview also delivered its strongest daily result ever of 563K
• The ABC was also the leading network in metro markets for NYE, with a 5-city prime-time share of 27% (flat on 2021).
• 3rd Party platforms drove strong levels of off-platform live viewing, with TikTok generating the most engagement this year
Sports Media
Cricket rights return to Foxtel and Seven – Paramount claims it “never made a formal bid”
After lots of negotiation and even more speculation, incumbents Foxtel and Seven have scored the cricket rights.
The new broadcast rights deal, which runs from 2024-2031, is worth $1.512 billion to Australian Cricket.
The deal is a 10.5% per year cash uplift on the current six-year deal signed in 2018 and represents a 16% uplift on the previous agreement based on comparative volume of content.
Under the new deal, the BBL will be reduced from its current schedule of 61 matches to 43, which Cricket Australia says allows for increased player availability, greater proportion of prime-time matches and stronger alignment with school holidays.
Other key elements of the new broadcast partnership include:
• Every game will be shown live on Fox Cricket through Foxtel and Kayo Sports, including men’s white ball games and 10 exclusive BBL matches.
• The Foxtel Group’s exclusive BBL matches will include a Super Saturday series shown on Fox Cricket through Foxtel and Kayo Sports.
• Seven will broadcast all men’s Tests and women’s international matches, 23 WBBL matches and 33 of the 43 BBL matches (including three BBL Finals).
• All Seven games will also be streamed on 7plus, allowing cricket to increase its reach.
• The term of the deal includes two home five-Test men’s series against India (24-25 and 28-29) and two home five-Test men’s Ashes series (25-26 and 29-30).
• An improved women’s international program, including home multi-format series against India, England and South Africa in the first three years of the deal.
See Also: Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany on cricket rights: ‘It was a sport we couldn’t just let go’
As a result of the deal, Seven withdrew its legal proceedings against Cricket Australia relating to recent seasons affected by the pandemic.
After the announcement was made, Paramount – who had reportedly offered $1.5b for FTA and subscription rights – made a statement saying that they had never been in the race to begin with.
A Paramount ANZ spokesperson said: “Paramount never made a formal bid for the rights and did not actively pursue the rights over recent weeks.
“We understand the interest in the most recent cricket media rights process and while Paramount considered the rights on offer and, despite reports to the contrary by various media outlets, it became clear following consistent discussions with Cricket Australia, that our objectives and views on the future presentation of the sport and its value were not aligned.
“We are the only Australian media company with a suite of distribution platforms across free-to-air and free and paid streaming services, as well as access to a global content pipeline delivering unequalled flexibility and reach, allowing us to make prudent long-term business decisions.
“Paramount congratulates the successful consortium and wishes them and Cricket Australia well for the future.”
Nine appears to celebrate Olympics win ahead of IOC announcement
Nine Entertainment Co appears to be the winner of the TV rights for the next three Olympics Summer Games. However, at the time of writing, there was yet to be an official word from the IOC or Nine about the awarding of the rights to Australia.
The Nine bid is reported to have included TV coverage of the Paris 2024, Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032 summer games.
Both The Sydney Morning Herald and Nine’s Wide World of Sports published stories about Nine’s rights victory.
The SMH headline reported: Nine takes Olympics TV rights from Seven as cricket mulls its future in a story published on Friday afternoon.
Early on Saturday Nine’s WWOS sport published an item online that reported:
Nine Network secures landmark Olympics broadcast deal for next three Games. The Nine Network has secured the broadcast rights for the next three summer Olympics – including Brisbane in 2032 – from incumbent Channel Seven.
However, the Wide World of Sports item was later taken down.
A Nine spokesperson told Mediaweek on Christmas Eve there was no announcement imminent “at this point” about any Olympic deal.
Coalition of Major Professional and Participation Sports pushes for eased anti-siphoning rules
In a submission to the government review of Australia’s anti-siphoning laws, the Coalition of Major Professional and Participation Sports (COMPPS) has taken the stance that the number of matches and events required to be shown on FTA should be reduced. Nine Publishing’s Zoe Samios writes that COMPPS argue that by preventing paywalled platforms from gaining exclusive rights to major broadcasts, sporting codes are losing out of money that could be used to advance their games.
See Also: Explained: The nuts and bolts of Australia’s anti-siphoning laws
COMPPS represents the AFL, Cricket Australia, the NRL, Tennis Australia, Rugby Australia, Netball Australia and Football Australia.
“The commercialisation and sale of their media rights is critical to COMPPS members being able to invest in their sport from the grassroots to the elite level,” the Coalition wrote in its submission.
“The scheme and the associated list are outdated and overdue for reform.
“Put simply, the anti-siphoning scheme and associated process limits and restricts competition and innovation in a rapidly evolving media landscape.”