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By James Manning
Mediaweek got to spend time with The Healthy Mummy founder and CEO Rhian Allen last week. Even after Allen’s amazing eight years of growth, April 2018 was a milestone.
The Healthy Mummy launched in the UK as the first part of international growth plans and Allen also published her first book to be released by a major publisher.
“We now have 1.5m healthy mums who follow us on social media and we have over 900,000 unique mums on the website every month,” Allen told Mediaweek.
“After being in Australia for eight years, earlier this month we launched in the UK.”
Sydney-based private equity firm Whiteoak took a 50% stake in the business in 2017. “We had a number of people who wanted to invest in the business over the years and I always said no,” said Allen.
“I finally said yes because the business was getting so big and I thought it was the time to bring someone on to help with scale.”
Whiteoak has been critical in helping with the UK launch and there are plans for more international expansion in 2019.
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Sky News has announced a series of enhancements to its Australian news service on Foxtel and groundbreaking innovations across its digital platforms.
Sky News will expand its international news offering with the launch of the stand-alone Sky News UK channel on Foxtel channel 605 available from Sunday May 27.
Also from May 27, Australia’s public affairs channel A-PAC rebrands to Sky News Extra, becoming the new home of live Australian public affairs coverage available on Foxtel channel 604.
Sky News today also announced enhancements to its digital network including exclusive members-only content on SkyNews.com.au.
Angelos Frangopoulos, CEO Australian News Channel, said: “Since Sky News Australia launched in 1996, we have grown to become a central part of Australian journalism. Today’s announcements further solidify our commitment and investment in delivering Australians premium journalism and incisive commentary that informs on the vital issues shaping our nation and the world.”
Dedicated to bringing viewers unfiltered access to Australian democracy in action, Sky News Extra will continue to feature every session of Federal Parliament live and in full, along with coverage from state and territory parliaments across Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK. Sky News Extra will also broadcast leading public affairs speeches, press conferences and breaking political news.
Sky News UK and Sky News Extra will be available with the Foxtel app, and will also join Sky News Live and Sky News Business as part of the news offering on Foxtel’s streaming service Foxtel Now.
The new public affairs channel Sky News Extra will simulcast live on SkyNews.com.au, mobile apps and Apple TV, available anywhere and on any device.
Sky News will also transition its multiview services to a new digital offering on SkyNews.com.au.
SkyNews.com.au will house three digital video news streams Sky News Extra 1, Sky News Extra 2 and Sky News Extra 3, featuring breaking news, press conferences, events and programming live and on demand 24/7.
SkyNews.com.au will introduce a new radio platform bringing audiences a live audio simulcast of Sky News Live with the ability to listen to the channel at any time.
Register at SkyNews.com.au for the Sky News Extra digital pass to access exclusive members-only content.
Sky News channel numbers listing from Sunday May 27:
Sky News Live
Channel 600 and 103
Australia’s news channel featuring the best award-winning journalists, exclusive insights from the biggest names in politics, live breaking news, sport and weather 24/7.
Sky News Business
Channel 601
Australia’s first and only 24-hour business channel, covering the top stories in business and finance as they break.
Fox Sports News
Channel 602 and 500
Australia’s only 24/7 sports news channel, first and live in breaking sports news.
Sky News Weather
Channel 603
Australia’s only 24-hour weather channel featuring the country’s largest on-air meteorological team and the Sky News Weather Active press RED functionality, for detailed weather forecasts at the touch of a button.
Sky News Extra
Channel 604
The only channel devoted to live coverage of parliament nationwide with unfiltered access to Australian democracy in action and a platform for discussion and debate.
Sky News UK
Channel 605
Live from the UK, breaking news headlines and top stories from business, politics and entertainment plus expert analysis and commentary delivered by the highly respected Sky News UK team.
The former Australian captain is the first major signing following this month’s announcement that Fox Sports is the home of cricket for at least the next six summers.
Gilchrist joins Fox Sports’ cricket experts Allan Border and Brendon Julian with more commentators set to join the network as part of the biggest shake-up in cricket broadcasting.
Gilchrist said he can’t wait to lead the new-look coverage: “Sport has been a major part of my life, as a player and now a commentator, so to join a network that is 100% focused on sport is something I am extremely excited about.
“Fox Sports’ new partnership with cricket has seen a big commitment to the game – a game that I clearly love – and I can’t wait to be a part of the family.
“It’s a changed landscape for cricket coverage in this country, where viewers have more choice and more variety than ever – and this will be great for the game.”
Foxtel and Fox Sports CEO Patrick Delany said: “Gilly is one of the most loved cricketers of all time. He will lead the Fox Cricket coverage working across all three forms of the game.
“Fans love his opinion and analysis, the way he combines pure class and humour.
“In the same way he set a new standard for what a wicket-keeper/batsman did in today’s game, Gilly will be the perfect person to front the most innovative cricket coverage on TV.
“We are building a formidable team and the only place to watch is on Foxtel.”
The channel has confirmed cricket coverage will be live, ad break-free during play and in HD on a new dedicated channel, Fox Cricket, which launches later this year.
The JLT Sheffield Shield Final returns to TV as part of the coverage and Fox Sports will show 13 JLT One-Day Cup matches along with the annual Allan Border Medal and Belinda Clark Award.
Fox Sports’ cricket coverage will include Australia’s Test and ODI Series against Pakistan beginning October in the UAE.
The B-Line service launched in late 2017, providing a fleet of 38 yellow double-decker buses covering some of Sydney’s busiest thoroughfares from Mona Vale to Sydney’s CBD, including Military Road.
The already popular service, which runs seven days a week from 4.30am to 12.30am, will extend further up the Northern Beaches to Newport in 2018.
APN Outdoor’s B-Line offering is now available to book for campaigns beginning from June 2018. The buses support large “Megaside” advertising canvases, measuring about 40 square metres and covering almost all of the driver’s side of each bus.
APN Outdoor chief executive officer and managing director James Warburton said: “The B-Line bus service has been a game-changer for Northern Beaches residents and offers a compelling new advertising opportunity.
“This community is the embodiment of the outdoor lifestyle and we know Northern Beaches residents rely particularly heavily on their bus network. We are excited to be able to extend our Transit portfolio in a way that gives our advertisers access to a diverse and affluent demographic via such an impactful creative canvas.”
The addition of the B-Line service boosts APN Outdoor’s double-decker formats to 16 across the more than 2,500 buses it currently holds the advertising rights for across metropolitan Sydney, giving the Sydney Transit Network increased scale and reach.
“APN Outdoor has undertaken significant research over the years to fully understand the effectiveness and results Transit formats offer advertisers,” Warburton added.
“What we found through our world-first Transit Factor research was remarkable: moving assets deliver 20% greater effectiveness than all stationary assets. This, coupled with the sheer scale of these moving billboards, gives this format the extra edge when it comes to reaching consumers, capturing their attention and delivering results for advertisers.”
In the last few days of April Ariana Grande became just the third person to land a #1 single so far in 2018. So far the chart had been dominated by Ed Sheeran and Drake and many tried but none succeeded until Grande’s “No Tears Left To Cry” was released this week. This is Grande’s first ARIA #1 single.
It was a week of another amazing feat – nine new songs found their way into the top 50 on debut. It’s not such a staggering achievement though when you realise five of the nine tracks are from the new J Cole album, which tops the album chart this week.
The other eight newcomers this week were:
#20: J Cole with “KOD”
#27: Anne-Marie with “2002”
#32: J Cole with “ATM”
#41: J Cole with “Photograph”
#43: Dennis Lloyd with “Nevermind”
#44: Khalid x Ty Dolla $ign x 6lack with “OTW”
#46: J Cole with “Kevin’s Heart”
#47: J Cole with “Motiv8”
Following the death of Avicii last week, four of his tracks have re-entered the chart. The former #1 hit “Wake Me Up” returned to the chart at #14 in addition to “Levels” at #24, “Without You” at #36 and “Hey Brother” at #38.
More faces shared success on the album chart this year with six different artists holding top spot. However, for 14 of those 18 weeks either Ed Sheeran or The Greatest Showman soundtrack has topped the chart.
US rapper J Cole lands at #1 with his “KOD” album and he also makes a mess of the singles chart with five of these tunes registering as new entries.
Just missing top spot are US rockers A Perfect Circle with “Eat The Elephant” debuting at #2. This is their fourth album and the first in 14 years.
The third new entry in the top 10 is Samantha Jade with “Best Of My Love”, which nestles in at #6. The collection of disco classics is Jade’s third album.
Four other releases made the top 50 on debut:
#18: Pennywise with “Never Gonna Die”
#31: Kimbra with “Primal Heart”
#38: Sting & Shaggy with “44/876”
#47: TesseracT with “Sonder”
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Top photo: J Cole (credit: Shutterstock)
By James Manning
My Kitchen Rules got the channel off to a strong start in a new week with 1.16m, although the finals audience was down on last week’s Sunday episode on 1.28m. Alex & Emily defeated young guns Stella & Jazzey to earn the second semifinal spot for 2018. All five remaining teams cooked in round one last night, with the best two then facing off.
Melissa Doyle was in the UK for interviews for a special Royal Wedding edition of Sunday Night. Perhaps surprisingly the numbers were down almost 200,000 on the previous Sunday – 747,000 last night versus 949,000 a week ago.
On Seven Perth in particular it was a big afternoon with a Perth crowd of 266,000 watching the local derby between the Dockers and the Eagles. That was more than the audience watching Collingwood v Richmond in Melbourne.
The Voice started with a duet between Kelly Rowland and Delta Goodrem and then included a wedding proposal later in the episode (not involving either coach!). The Sunday episode did 1.06m and pulled a slightly bigger crowd than My Kitchen Rules in Sydney.
60 Minutes managed to outrate Sunday Night with reports from Liz Hayes, Tom Steinfort was with Ben Simmons, and then Tara Brown questioned why there continues to be a wage gap between men and women. The episode did 793,000, which was well up on last week’s 594,000.
Westworld’s James Marsden was a guest on The Sunday Project with an audience of 423,000 after 7pm.
The first part of the two-part final of Bachelor In Paradise did 627,000, down from the 688,000 watching on Sunday a week ago. The final four couples went on their last dates before tonight’s commitment ceremonies.
An NCIS repeat then did 207,000 followed by SEAL Team on 156,000.
Grand Designs again found a place in the top 10 with 591,000.
A Midsomer Murders repeat then did 382,000.
A repeat of The Celts did 209,000.
A screening of the Michael Moore doco Capitalism: A Love Story then did 181,000.
SUNDAY METRO | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven | Nine | Ten | SBS | |||||
ABC | 10.6% | 7 | 24.3% | 9 | 22.8% | TEN | 9.5% | SBS One | 5.4% |
ABC 2 | 2.5% | 7TWO | 3.0% | GO! | 3.7% | ONE | 2.4% | VICELAND | 0.8% |
ABC ME | 0.6% | 7mate | 3.9% | GEM | 2.3% | ELEVEN | 1.7% | Food Net | 0.5% |
ABC News | 1.2% | 7flix | 2.4% | 9Life | 2.2% | NITV | 0.1% | ||
TOTAL | 14.9% | 33.6% | 31.0% | 13.6% | 6.9% |
SUNDAY REGIONAL | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven Affiliates | Nine Affiliates | Ten Affiliates | SBS | |||||
ABC | 11.7% | 7 | 23.4% | 9 | 22.2% | WIN | 7.5% | SBS One | 4.6% |
ABC 2 | 2.8% | 7TWO | 3.8% | GO! | 4.7% | ONE | 2.0% | VICELAND | 0.6% |
ABC ME | 1.0% | 7mate | 3.6% | GEM | 5.0% | ELEVEN | 1.0% | Food Net | 0.9% |
NEWS 24 | 1.1% | 7flix | 2.0% | 9Life | 2.0% | NITV | 0.1% | ||
TOTAL | 16.6% | 32.8% | 33.9% | 10.5% | 6.2% |
SUNDAY METRO ALL TV | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FTA | STV | ||||||||
83.7% | 16.3% |
Friday Top 10
Saturday Top 10
Prime CEO Ian Audsley said consolidation of regional television licences under one operator is the future of regional TV. “Parliamentarians and regulators must understand that the alternative is market failure,” he said.
Southern Cross chief executive Grant Blackley said his company supports the abolition of the remaining media ownership restrictions.
“Importantly the one TV licence to a market rule, two radio licences to a market rule and the voices test,” he said.
A spokesman for Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said: “The government has no plans to further amend media ownership and control laws.”
The government’s inquiry into the competitive neutrality of the national broadcasters has released an issues paper that will examine if the ABC and SBS use their status and government funding to unfair advantage.
Rival commercial broadcasters have been invited to give specific examples of when the ABC or SBS might have received competitive advantage over a private competitor because of public ownership.
The Australian’s Darren Davidson adds:
The Turnbull government was accused by Labor last night of attempting to review the charters of the ABC and SBS by the “back door” with a high-powered probe into the commercial activities of the public broadcasters.
The ABC and SBS have been left stunned by the scope of the inquiry as parties traded insults last night over its purpose.
“Our team has always been committed to delivering the nation’s leading business commentary, reporting and analysis. Providing additional content from premium international business brands like WSJ, The Economist and now also Harvard Business Review is part of our ongoing commitment to delivering readers and subscribers the very best destination for business news, analysis and commentary,” said Paul Whittaker, The Australian editor-in-chief.
“There is no doubt this addition to our offering will be well received by the many subscribers who turn to us for premium business coverage.”
Harvard Business Review complements the newspaper’s existing suite of the world’s best news, analysis and commentary brands: The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, The Economist and The Times of London.
The Australian’s inclusion of selected content from Harvard Business Review commenced today in paper and online.
Maggie McPhillips (now Maggie Jacka) was part of the launch team and she has provided Mediaweek details about the Australian launch and how she and her former magazine colleagues came together last week.
The inaugural May 1973 issue of the magazine launched nationally into supermarkets on April 29, 1973.
Last week some of the original team met for lunch at Mathew’s Peacock Gardens in Crows Nest to reminisce about the launch.
Family Circle was owned by the New York Times Magazine Group and, at the time, the US parent version was the best-selling magazine in the world with 10 million copies a month.
John Southam (ex-Reader’s Digest joint MD) was the founder and publisher of the new title.
Richard Conway came out from New York to establish what was then a revolutionary circulation model – selling magazines at supermarket checkouts for the first time in Australia.
Joy Hayes came across from New Idea to be the founding editor of Family Circle Australia.
The title is credited with creating a craft revolution in Australia and it won the Hoover Marketing Award for the best introduction of a new product.
Family Circle Australia had a strong merchandising formula used by the NYT Magazine Group including publishing its own monthly trade newspaper for supermarket store managers called Advance News.
It became a cross-platform brand in 1975 when Family Circle became a TV show featuring Bernard King and King’s Kitchen among other personalities. It was the first magazine masthead to have its own TV show and promoted content from the current issue.
Conway met and married an Australian girl Robina and they made a special visit from the US to coincide with last week’s anniversary.
Drone magazine was launched in June 2015 as part of Yaffa Media’s group of photo magazines. Yaffa had employed a drone operating company called Droneheadz to shoot some video for an AdNews event in late 2014. This led to Droneheadz approaching Yaffa with the idea of working together on a drone magazine.
The principals of Droneheadz are Andy Willmott and Craig Newlyn and they have been the main drivers of content in the magazine. They also own the domain dronemagazine.com.au.
The recently retired former Yaffa Media executive Jeremy Light was publisher and editor of the print edition, which was published twice a year.
The last print edition, issue 6, was published in December 2017. It is still available in some newsagencies.
The JV agreement was essentially that Droneheadz would receive a consultancy fee and a percentage of the bottom line while Yaffa would take care of production, distribution and the commercial side.
Yaffa Media has no financial stake in the brand and has no objection to another publisher taking it over.
Light is working with Droneheadz trying to find another publisher willing to take it on.
Light told Mediaweek the drone market is growing and highly active, generating a lot of interest in both the consumer and business markets. “New drone products and new ways of using drones are being developed all the time.”
Anyone interested in receiving further details could contact Light at [email protected].
Ten chief content officer Beverley McGarvey, who was part of the team that dreamed up the Australian version of MasterChef nearly a decade ago, admits the show had a “very poor reception” and there were questions about cooking as a reality genre.
Ten took a chance and built MasterChef as a six-night a week franchise in its first season.
“It was an instant hit and then it grew,” McGarvey said.
Endemol Shine chief executive Carl Fennessy said he and his brother had always kept an eye on the UK version of MasterChef and believed the category of food and cooking was building as a silent force with the growing popularity of celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson and Gordon Ramsay.
The Fennessy brothers, running Fremantle Media at the time, licensed the rights to the MasterChef format from Shine. In 2012, the show was taken back to Shine where the brothers now work.
“We always hoped and believed it would be successful, but it was probably more successful than we could have ever anticipated,” Carl Fennessy said.
Hosted by Dannii Minogue, Dance Boss pits teams of workers from the same workplace or profession in a dance-off to win a cash prize of $100,000.
Sharni Vinson is a former Home And Away star who found international fame in the US box office smash hit Step Up 3D, the third instalment of Disney’s globally successful Step Up dance film franchise. “I am beyond excited to be back on Australian soil and surrounded by the contagious spirit of dance,” said Vinson, who is trained in ballet, contemporary, hip hop, tap and acrobatics.
Dance Boss marks a return to the judge’s chair for Adam Garcia, who is keen to share his love of dance with both the competing teams and the audience at home.
Garcia said: “I’m really excited to be a part of this brilliant new show that celebrates the love and passion Aussies have for dance and all the different things dancing gives them. And we’re going to share that love around to everyone.”
Garcia danced his way across Australia as a member of the ground-breaking Hot Shoe Shuffle, which was the first Australian musical to go to London’s West End, taking him with it. He then established himself as a London theatre star garnering two Olivier Award nominations before returning to Australia to star in the Tap Dogs movie Bootmen. Garcia then came to international attention thanks to his eye-catching performance in the romantic comedy Coyote Ugly.
He returned to his dance roots in 2009 as a judge for four seasons of the UK’s dance competition series, Got to Dance. In 2013, he returned to Australia as one of the judges of the Seven hit series, Dancing with the Stars.
A chart-topper with singles like “Parachute” and “Set It Off”, Timomatic said he is looking forward to sharing his experience and advice with the Dance Boss teams.
“I got my first break on a show a bit like this, so I know exactly what these teams will be going through,” said the performer, who earned the nickname Timomatic in his teens thanks to his hip hop dance skills.
Warne’s manager James Erskine told Fairfax Media that Foxtel/Fox Sports has already had a discussion with them, but said Seven had not yet made contact.
Erskine said they intend to speak to Nine first as Warne has a 20-year relationship with the free-to-air network, which has held the cricket rights for four decades. Warne reportedly charged as much as $7,000 a day for his commentary services at Channel Nine.
Nine still has the rights to the 2019 Ashes, World Cup and 2020 T20 World Cup.