It is a claim that Seven disputes, noting it has been doing it since October 2017.

In a media preview last Friday and in a market launch in Sydney today, Nine claims it has become the first Australian broadcaster to launch real addressable advertising.

The initial stage of the launch will see Nine work with partners to offer addressable advertising based on age, sex and location through 9Now’s database of more than 6.5 million user IDs.

“Today has been a long time coming,” said Michael Stephenson, Nine’s chief sales officer. “We have long recognised the shift towards identity-based marketing, as part of a broader marketing campaign, and for this reason Nine led the Australian market in requiring consumers to log in to our broadcast video on demand platform, 9Now.

“Over the past two and half years we have built a powerful data asset containing 6.5 million IDs, which has allowed us to be the first media business in Australia to offer addressability at scale in a premium, brand-safe environment.”

Nine’s commercial director, digital sales, Pippa Leary, said the launch was recognition of the appetite in the market for real addressability based on an at-scale database of declared user IDs. She also noted that Nine was one of the only players to have made this leap globally.

“The leap we are making today is a big one not just in Australia but globally,” said Leary. “What we are offering through 9Now is true addressability.”

In a statement on the weekend, Seven indicated it was puzzled by some of the claims made by Nine about its initiative.

“The Seven Network launched addressable TV at scale in Australia during the Rugby League World Cup in October 2017,” said a Seven spokesperson.

“We have since delivered addressable TV for hundreds of clients and campaigns through our live streamed network programming, the 2018 Australian Open, Winter Olympics, 2018 Commonwealth Games and every day since.

“We target digital video advertising based on a combination of first party data secured from logged-in and verified 7plus users who opt in currently through our web and mobile OTT platforms and soon on connected TVs, alongside premium second and third party data partnerships including TEG and Quantium.

“We are excited by the potential that addressable TV advertising has for the whole TV industry and expect this and other industry innovations to continue to grow the market. And we’re looking forward to the ongoing evolution of TV across broadcast, hybrid TV and BVOD and the accompanying benefits to brand and advertisers.”

Nine and Seven have differing strategies regarding their approach to streaming and on-demand viewing. Nine makes a login mandatory, while Seven makes it optional.

That gives Nine a bigger registered audience. However, Seven has indicated Nielsen data shows both 9Now and 7plus have similar monthly audiences.

9Now has been in the marketplace longer, with 7plus a newer product after it was launched following Seven’s decision to move on from Yahoo7.

Nine’s Leary explained Nine’s digital audience:

“Without declared data you are simply targeting cookies and devices – this is not true addressability. Cookies and devices don’t buy goods and services, people do. That is why our solution does not use inferred data, only declared data from real Australians, making it a truly people-based marketing solution.

“The market knows how Nine has led the way in building a powerful video asset through shows like Married at First Sight and Love Island Australia, which both broke BVOD records, and this is now the logical extension of the journey we have been on.”

Nine noted Married at First Sight was the first reality show on BVOD to achieve a VPM rating of 300,000 for some of its infamous dinner party episodes, while Love Island Australia targeted new audiences in the 16-39 demographic, which saw very different consumption habits. More than 10% of the TV audience live-streamed the show on 9Now for some episodes, and more than half the Love Island audience coming from BVOD.

“The BVOD market is growing faster than any other media channel and 9Now is the market leader,” said Stephenson. “We were the first to require user logins from consumers because we knew they would be central to our future.

“Today’s announcement benefits both consumers and advertisers, offering more targeted advertising to audience segments that will deliver real business growth.”

—

Top Photo: Nine’s Michael Stephenson and Pippa Leary

By Kruti Joshi

You really have to know your community like no other. So moving into a new community from elsewhere – especially with an accent like mine – can sometimes be challenging,” she told Mediaweek. “It’s easy to know the business and political leaders and the movers and shakers in town – Townsville is a close-knit community. However, at times, it’s harder to know the grassroots of the community.

“I wanted to know what the mums and dads, small business owners and other community members cared about and what made them tick.

“Everybody has an interesting story. You just have to spend a few minutes with them. People love sharing their stories and reading about other people.”

Cairney started her journalism career in Dundee, Scotland, at DC Thomson, a major publisher in the UK. She went on to work at The Courier, The Evening Telegraph and The Sunday Post. After that she came to Australia to visit her sister and says she then found herself “unable to leave”.

—

This is an excerpt from the full article, which appears on Mediaweek Premium. Read the full article here or subscribe to Mediaweek Premium here.

By Kruti Joshi

The number of DAB+ radios increased by 24% to 3.8 million in the 12 months to 2017.

However, according to Meagan Loader, there is still a lot of explaining to do in the market about what digital radio is. Loader is the content director for triple j’s digital networks.

She told Mediaweek, “Nearly half of all new cars sold in 2017 came with digital radios and around 30% of the available audience listens via DAB+.”

Loader is responsible for Double J, Rage, ABC Country (which includes ABC Radio’s Saturday Night Country) and The Music Show on RN. The biggest challenge of her role is “finding enough time to read, scroll, post, listen and watch everything”, she said.

ABC’s digital radio properties have had a strong year so far.

“This year we’ve seen numbers go up in the GFK surveys for all our ABC stations, even as more stations are released to DAB+, pointing to its continued growth in 2018,” Loader said.

—

This is an excerpt from the full article, which appears on Mediaweek Premium. Read the full article here or subscribe to Mediaweek Premium here.

A Sunday Telegraph item headlined “Channel 10 programs facing axe with new American owners taking charge” has attracted a strong denial from both Network Ten and its new owner CBS.

The report said in part:

Under review for 2019 are said to be its underperforming new game show Pointless, which recently replaced Family Feud in Ten’s schedule, The Bachelor or The Bachelorette, with sources claiming Ten executives believe the two shows are too similar for both to survive, and Survivor, which premiered with only 716,000 viewers on Wednesday against soft competition.

A cloud also hangs over I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

[Read the original]

In response, Network Ten chief content officer Beverley McGarvey said: “The claims made in The Sunday Telegraph today are ill-informed, misleading and completely wrong. We were not asked to comment on these claims before they were published. If we had been, we would have furnished the reporter with the truth.

“The facts are clear. Network Ten’s audience has increased strongly over the past three months, thanks to the success of MasterChef Australia, Have You Been Paying Attention?, Shark Tank, Australian Survivor and other shows. Last week, Ten had the #1 show of the week in total people with MasterChef Australia The Winner Announced and four of the top six programs of the week in our key target market of people 25 to 54.

“To claim Australian Survivor, The Bachelor Australia, The Bachelorette Australia, I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! and Pointless are under review is total nonsense.

“We are very pleased with the performance of the new season of Australian Survivor. After two nights, it is up 6% in total people year on year and it ranks #1 in its timeslot in total people and 25 to 54s.

“The new season of The Bachelor Australia, with Nick “Honey Badger” Cummins, starts on 15 August and it is set to be a fantastic season. The new season of The Bachelorette Australia with Ali Oetjen will follow later this year. The claim that we think the shows are too similar and that there is only room for one is naïve and false.

“I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! performed very well for Ten in early 2018 in our core target market and it will be back in 2019, while Pointless is generating good growth for us among younger viewers.

“Overall, Ten is performing well and we are looking forward to launching the new seasons of all the shows that are allegedly ‘under review’. To suggest otherwise is just plain wrong.”

A CBS spokesperson added:

“CBS has and continues to support Beverley, the TEN management team and the Network’s programming strategy. The second half of 2018 will see the most comprehensive investment in Australian content in the history of the network, and they will soon be announcing a significant investment in summer and first quarter 2019. The story in The Sunday Telegraph is simply not accurate.”

Media agencies bought an extra $282.2 million in advertising on behalf of their clients in the latest financial year, bringing their total spend to $7.35 billion, and underscoring the ongoing role of media agencies in the marketing landscape.

The year was also unique in that it featured a number of one-off events that drove the ad market higher: the Rio Olympics, Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, elections in SA and Queensland, the financial services royal commission, the same-sex marriage debate and the soccer World Cup.

As a result the outdoor, radio, digital and cinema media all reported record levels of financial year ad spend, with agency bookings onto the digital media moving through the $2bn mark for the first time.

In June, the market grew 4.9% to a record $654.3 million, with ad spend to metropolitan TV soaring 8.5% as SBS benefited from World Cup advertising and Nine broadcast two NRL State of Origin matches compared to one last June.

Press bookings also continued to improve, with the total back 5.1% and metro press titles back a lesser 1%.

Digital bookings grew 6.6% in June, but only due to a large surge in spending on search advertising.

SMI AU/NZ managing director Jane Ractliffe said the results represent a watershed moment for Australia’s media industry as never before has so much been spent on advertising.

“Our media industry is in its best-ever health, but of course beneath those headline numbers there are shifting sands with ad spend moving across the major media and media sectors as technologies and audiences continue to change,” she said.

“And in the last financial year, the largest dollar change was the increase in programmatic spend (+$114 million) although we’re now seeing that slowing as it increased just 2.4% in June. The next largest dollar gain was in metro TV (+$93 million) as the sector reasserted its audience credentials in the market. And of course the search market also came back to life this year after experiencing some growth pains.”

According to the latest emma data for May 2018, the total cross-platform readership for Australia’s news media sector in May reached 16.4 million or 89% of the population (aged 14+).

News media readership on digital devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops rose by 3% to 13.3 million, or 72% of the population.

Newspapers are read by 12.3 million people each month, or 67% of Australians. Metro newspapers were read by 10 million people, or 55% of consumers, in May. Meanwhile, regional and community news media brands were read by 6.3 million people, or more than one-third of the population (34%).

NewsMediaWorks CEO Peter Miller said: “In the May readership data, it is encouraging to see ongoing pockets of growth in news media, which has also been reflected in the latest News Media Index for advertising revenue. It found that the industry’s decline in ad revenue has almost halved in the past quarter, with newspapers and news websites leading the positive revenue improvements. The News Media Index and latest emma data are further proof that news media brands are gaining ground with both readers and advertisers who want trusted news sources.”

The Sydney Morning Herald is Australia’s highest-reaching title across all platforms with 4.86 million readers. The Daily Telegraph followed, reaching 3.74 million readers and Herald Sun on 3.69 million (see table below).

This is the third month of emma cross-platform readership data to come from Nielsen, in a new strategic collaboration announced in May. Under the new arrangement, Nielsen leads the fusion process that brings together the industry accredited print readership data from Ipsos and Nielsen’s IAB-accredited digital audience data, to deliver a total audience readership. Nielsen Consumer & Media View (CMV) is fused to the emma cross-platform data to provide critical product and attitudinal data.

In addition to the readership data, emma CMV2 provides insights into Australian consumers’ product purchases and attitudes. The data has revealed that three in four Australians (13.9 million) are “concerned” or “very concerned” about the price of electricity. This has prompted 1.8 million people to change their electricity supplier in the last 12 months, and another 1.8 million say they are likely to change their supplier in the next two months.

Miller said: “When it comes to the electricity providers, news media reaches 90% of those people who say that they plan to switch providers in the next two months. There is no better way to reach this important group of Australians to help inform their views than news media, the most trusted media channel for both content and ads.”

The show returns for a second series tonight. It showcases multicultural food and flavour.

SBS’s director of media sales Adam Sadler said, “It’s great to have Harvey Norman return for a second series and also welcome Bertolli Olive Oil and Farmers Union Greek Yoghurt as partners. The Chefs’ Line is a fantastic example of how SBS Media works with brands by providing unique opportunities that connect with our distinct content and premium audience.

“The Chefs’ Line is a wonderful example of what SBS programs do so well. It’s effortlessly diverse and educates, entertains and entices viewers with its exploration of multicultural food.”

Each week, new participants and chefs from different backgrounds will showcase their skills with 10 different cuisines explored over 10 weeks.

Executive chef Dan Hong, renowned chef Mark Olive and food writer Melissa Leong will judge the dishes.

The original Australian format has been created and produced by Eureka Productions.

The first season of The Chefs’ Line Australia has screened in more than 20 territories including UK, India, Canada, Philippines, Finland, Poland and Netherlands. A Dutch version is currently screening in Netherlands.

The Chefs’ Line continues at 6pm weeknights on SBS, followed by an encore screening at 9.30pm on SBS Food Network.

The network has 36 stations nationally and four digital stations.

Triple M Townsville and Triple M Newcastle will continue to produce local shows and content for their listeners, including the breakfast shows That’s Pricey for Breakfast in Townsville and Tanya and Steve in Newcastle.

Kennedy Molloy with Mick Molloy and Jane Kennedy can be heard each weekday afternoon from 4pm-6pm. The Triple M NRL call will air from Thursday to Sunday during footy season.

SCA’s head of content for regional radio Mickey Maher said, “We are proud and passionate about the communities we are part of and the local content we deliver. We’re excited to bring one of the country’s most iconic media brands, Triple M to Newcastle and Townsville.”

Triple M Townsville will launch on September 3 and Triple M Newcastle on November 9.

Following its success last week, Seven has announced the return of cheeky strip special The Real Full Monty – but with a twist.

• Seven’s Brian Taylor on getting nude in Sunday’s The Real Full Monty

The Real Full Monty: Ladies’ Night is Seven’s sister commission to The Real Full Monty, and will see eight female celebrities pull together a showstopping performance to raise awareness for women’s health.

The premiere of The Real Full Monty on July 19 was watched by over 1.9 million Australians, and was the top rating non-news show of the night.

Shane Jacobson, Campbell Brown, Matt Cooper, Brendan “Jonesy” Jones, Jett Kenny, Sam Mac, Kris Smith and Brian “BT” Taylor performed the iconic strip tease from 1997 20th Century Fox classic The Full Monty in front of a packed Sydney theatre audience.

Mediaweek’s James Manning spoke with AFL legend and Seven commentator Brian Taylor ahead of the show’s premiere. Read the interview here: 

SCA’s 2Day FM breakfast host Em Rusciano has announced that she is pregnant with her third child.

39-year-old Rusciano, who is “all the way through the first trimester and then some”, made the announcement on-air this morning.

“We are having a baby!” she told Grant Denyer and Ed Kavalee. “I can’t believe I’m saying that out loud. I’ve been so scared to say it out loud. I’m not gonna cry.”

Rusciano continued to talk about her miscarriage last May and what it meant to her.

The announcement was also made on Rusciano’s Instagram.

“I’m totally pregnant and so happy my heart may burst in my chest at any moment…

“Let me tell you it’s a different ball game doing this at 39 to 21. It’s a good thing that the stretch marks are in place and ready to go!”

It’s gonna take more than a superfreak strip routine and a Kombi van to get me out of this one.. Jokes guys.. I’m totally pregnant and so happy my heart my burst in my chest at any moment. Although I’m not so much little miss sunshine as little miss teary, bloated, nauseous yet ravenously hungry. Let me tell you it’s a different ball game doing this at 39 to 21.. It’s a good thing that the stretch marks are in place and ready to go! #geriatricpregnancy #stretchypants #nippleslikefighterpilotsthumbs

A post shared by E m R u s c i a n o (@emrusciano) on Aug 5, 2018 at 12:46am PDT

The editor and publisher of the title is journalist Elizabeth Meryment.

It will focus on people, food, travel, lifestyle, design, homes, beauty, sport and more.

Printed in high gloss in B5 size (180mm x 250mm), the magazine is a free monthly that will have an initial print run of 50,000 copies per month.

The first issue goes out today with the majority of copies home delivered throughout the eastern suburbs. The rest will be bundle dropped into cafés, libraries, council chambers, real estate agencies and other places of interest from the CBD to Watsons Bay.

The suburbs in the distribution catchment include Sydney CBD, Elizabeth Bay, Potts Point, Rushcutters Bay, Surry Hills, Paddington, Edgecliff, Darling Point, Woollahra, Queens Park, Centennial Park, Randwick, Kensington, Maroubra, Coogee, Clovelly, Bronte, Tamarama, Waverley, Bondi, Bondi Junction, Dover Heights, Watsons Bay, Vaucluse, Rose Bay, Bellevue Hill and Double Bay.

Contributors to the launch (August) edition of the magazine include high-profile journalists and media identities Leila McKinnon, Derek Rielly, Neil Breen, Alexia Biggs and Fiona Gillies, chef Lennox Hastie and photographers Elise Hassey, Parker Blain, Nikki To and the late Rennie Ellis.

The launch edition of the magazine is 52 pages and includes advertising from Racing NSW, McGrath, the SCG Trust, Bannisters Hotel Port Stephens, Smeg, Merivale, the Fink Group, Woollahra Council and Cambridge Markets. It also has a 12-page insert from Hello Fresh.

Local Publishing Co will independently produce Local East in association with content agency Edible Ink Media & Content. Edible Ink Media & Content launched recently and is the sister operation of Local Publishing Co. The former offers services such as writing, photography, design and custom publishing.

“I never imagined going back into print media when I left newspapers 18 months ago,” Meryment said. “But when I started toying with the idea of doing some kind of high-end local product, I talked to a lot of top-end businesses about it. They all seemed enthusiastic. Then, when I had the designs and concepts ready to go, those businesses who had initially expressed an interest in advertising in the magazine actually went ahead and bought advertising.

“Advertisers feel very strongly that this is a population they wish to engage with and that this is a medium they feel can deliver the messages they want to transmit. They like the look, feel, size and reach of the product and are prepared to give it a go.”

A linked website – local-mag.com.au – and social media channels will launch next month.

After recently announcing well-known Brisbane comedian Mike van Acker joined 97.3FM’s breakfast line-up, the new campaign creative for the station features Mike alongside co-hosts Bianca Dye and Bob Gallagher, introducing the new show to the market as “Brisbane’s fresh way to wake up”.

In Melbourne, ARN said the campaign sees an evolution of KIIS 101.1’s Jase & PJ creative and showcases Jase & PJ’s authentic chemistry through a series of fun photo booth images.

Both cross platform campaigns will roll out across outdoor, transit, digital and social from August 3.

Australians trust the ABC for information that is relevant to their daily lives and engages them in conversations. From its creation, the ABC has been adept at using its platforms and services and embracing new technology to meet that demand.

ABC Life recognises that in a cluttered digital environment, fresh approaches are needed to ensure stories are created, published and shared in ways that are most useful to audiences – making ABC stories as accessible as possible.

Going live on Monday August 6, the ABC Life site creates a new home to showcase content on issues important to all Australians – work and careers, health and wellbeing, finance, relationships and family – free from commercial agendas.

It brings together curated content from ABC Television, ABC News, ABC Regional and Local, triple j, Radio National, ABC online and our podcasts, supplemented by creative output from the ABC Life team. It utilises the skills of our journalists and content makers from across metro and regional Australia, including the capital cities and regional centres such as Launceston, Orange, the Sunshine Coast and Broome.

Pan-ABC collaborations will deliver much-loved programs to new audiences, including recaps of Gardening Australia and a special series with RN’s Life Matters. The new digital service also features distinctive ABC content such as War on Waste, Employable Me, The Pineapple Project and Ladies, We Need To Talk.

Scott Spark, ABC Life lead, said the new site will help Australia-wide audiences discover and enjoy the huge variety of distinctive and informative content they expect from the ABC.

“ABC Life builds on the tradition of the ABC tapping into the everyday topics, issues and stories that matter to people. It will look and sound like Australia now, and be free of advertiser interests,” he said.

ABC Life was developed within the ABC’s Content Ideas Lab and is part of the Investing in Audiences strategy to meet the changing needs and expectations of audiences within the ABC’s Charter remit.

Singles

Drake (pictured) remains locked in top spot with In My Feelings #1 after five weeks on the chart.

Dean Lewis with Be Alright and 5SOS with Youngblood swapped places on the chart with Lewis hitting a new peak of #2 after five weeks – slowly getting closer to #1! Meanwhile 5SOS are still top three after an incredible 16 weeks on the chart.

Just one new entry on the chart this week and it comes from superstar DJ Khaled and features Justin Bieber, Quavo and Chance The Rapper. The tune is No Brainer and is a follow-up to last year’s I’m The One, which also featured most of this talent team.

Two major movers popped up in the top 50 after debuting recently lower down the chart:

#64 to #31: Zedd and Elley Duhe with Happy Now.

#69 to #37: George Ezra with Shotgun.

Albums

Ten new releases crashed into the top 50 – one of them made the top 10, while three touring divas saw major charts action.

The two changes to the top 10 are:

#11 to #4 Céline Dion with The Best So Far… 2018 Tour Edition.

New at #9 is Adam Harvey with The Nashville Tapes.

The rest of this week’s chart debuts inside the top 50:

#11 Golden Features with Sect with Aussie DJ and producer Tom Stell.

#15 Tim Campbell with Electrifying 80s: Stock Aitken Waterman. Some great tunes that deserve another outing.

#16 Halestorm with Vicious.

#17 The Screaming Jets with Gotcha Covered. Good to see the Aussie rockers in the top 20 and a performance on Eddie’s Desk on Triple M’s The Hot Breakfast won’t hurt momentum this week.

#27 Denzel Curry with TA1300.

#29 Kirsty Lee Akers with Under My Skin. Latest album from the Aussie singer-songwriter based both here and in Nashville.

#40 Daughtry with Cage To Rattle.

#42 Aled Jones with One Voice: Believe.

#50 Grime with Nova RL.

The touring female superstars making a mark on the charts are:

Celine Dion at #4

P!nk at #7, #13, #38 and #49

Katy Perry #47

By Cam Shea, editor-in-chief, IGN Australia

It’s likely that No Man’s Sky will make the list next week, thanks to its large “Next” update, and the fact that it has now been released on Xbox One. The re-release adds significant new features such as base building and multiplayer, and has received a positive critical response . No Man’s Sky was initially the victim of its own hype, but continues to edge closer to its promise of exploration and adventure across an impossibly large, procedurally generated universe.

August as a whole will be a relatively quiet month, with a handful of big games at retail – such as the next World of Warcraft expansion: Battle for Azeroth – before release season really starts to kick into gear in September. No matter, half the world is playing Fortnite right now anyway.

By James Manning

Seven

Little Big Shots returned to the Seven schedule with 963,000 tuning in for the second season. That’s well short of the 1.67m watching last year and is a year-on-year audience dip of Ninja Warrior proportions.

Sunday Night followed with 597,000.

Crime Investigation Australia then did 253,000. Interestingly, at that time of night there were more people watching the 7mate movie The Martian. The 2015 Matt Damon sci-fi film gave 7mate its biggest share since May.

Nine

Nine ranked #1 with primary and combined channel share last night.

Key to that victory of course was the return of The Block. The series copped a hammering on Fairfax Media yesterday, despite a partnership Nine has with Domain, which called the new series “hard to stomach”, adding “this display of greed is grotesque”. The scenes of the completed units indicate there is some impressive reno work happening this year. The Block doesn’t have too many amateurs: A builder and a nurse, a construction manager, another builder and a radio host, two netballers and a Perth pilot and a flight attendant who have a little reno experience. The contestants were chosen from a record 45,000 couples who applied for this season. Scott Cam’s first challenge for the 2018 team was a 48-hour makeover of a kids room. The winning team get to choose its apartment in The Gatwick.

The first episode did 1.16m after a 2017 launch of 1.11m.

60 Minutes followed with 809,000.

Ten

Osher Günsberg was the special guest on The Sunday Project talking about his book. Andrew Rochford asked him about revealing his salary – he earned $1m at one stage – and he told another panellist Meshel Laurie that she is in the book. The episode also featured the Parma For A Farmer fundraiser with the show getting behind the initiative and next Friday being called National Parma For A Farmer Day.

The return of Russell Coight’s All Aussie Adventures then got the 7.30pm slot with a 30-minute episode. The program returned with 881,000, ranking #2 for the night 25-54 behind The Block. A Coight media blitz in the past week would have kept the program competitive. The numbers were down of course on what it did 15 years ago.

The comedy Street Smart from the Habibs team followed at 8pm but it could only keep 365,000 of the Aussie Adventures’ audience.

Bull returned to the TEN schedule at 8.30pm with 221,000.

Sports Tonight then took over from 9.30pm with 96,000.

ABC

The first in the series of Grand Designs: House Of The Year did 582,000.

The penultimate episode of Jack Irish then did 738,000 after 611,000 last week.

Wrong Kind Of Black then did 206,000.

SBS

The documentary Julius Caesar Revealed did 224,000 at 7.30pm.

It was followed by a repeat The Sugar Conspiracy on 198,000.