Media Roundup: Apple, Google pull app, Aussies chase Meta payout, TikTok deal finalised, Buttrose omits Latouff saga, and The Block’s profit slump

See the top industry stories trending today.

Social Media

Apple and Google remove chat app after eSafety warning

The Daily Telegraph’s Julie Cross writes the tech giants have pulled OmeTV from their stores after Australia’s eSafety Commission warned the chat app was being used by predators to target children.

The app’s Portuguese owner, Bad Kitty’s Dad LDA, ignored a request to add child protections, prompting the watchdog to step in.

Aussies urged to claim share of Meta’s $50m payout

More than 300,000 Australians could score a cut of Meta’s $50 million settlement over the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal – but claims close soon.

news.com.au’s Duncan Evans writes the payout follows a deal with the Australian Information Commissioner after Facebook was accused of letting user data flow to a political profiling app.

TikTok deal set for final approval this week

After months of wrangling, TikTok’s US deal looks locked in.

According to Ashley King in Digital Music News, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the agreement allowing TikTok to keep operating in America under a new structure is “finalised.”

Publishing

Buttrose skips Latouff saga in new memoir

Anyone flicking through Ita Buttrose’s new memoir Unapologetically Ita in search of gossip about Antoinette Lattouf will come up empty.

The Australian’s Caroline Overington writes the former ABC chair makes no mention of the legal saga that saw the broadcaster ordered to pay more than $220,000 in damages, and millions in fees, over Lattouf’s sacking.

Radio

Levy faces $680k debt after restaurant collapse

The Daily Telegraph’s Josh Hanrahan writes that 2GB’s Mark Levy has been hit with a hefty $680,000 debt after his Sylvania restaurant, Pronto, went under.

The eatery’s parent company, Saint George Hospitality Group, which Levy solely directed, was pushed into external administration earlier this month following a Supreme Court order.

AI

Labor reignites copyright reform talks with tech and media giants

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland will this week host more than 70 tech, media and entertainment companies for the next phase of Labor’s copyright reform push.

Capital Brief’s John Buckley writes the Copyright and AI Reference Group will include OpenAI, Microsoft, News Corp and Google as the government weighs how to modernise laws for the AI era.

Television

The Block finale delivers lowest profits in over a decade

The Block’s latest auction night has been branded its biggest flop in years, with two teams walking away empty-handed and total profits barely cracking $750,000.

In this piece, The Sydney Morning Herald’s Michael Lallo, asks what this years auction results mean for the show, and for its new Network Seven rival, My Reno Rules.

Keep on top of the most important media, marketing, and agency news each day with the Mediaweek Morning Report – delivered for free every morning to your inbox.

To Top