Both EBITDA and net profit were down by 4.9% and 6% respectively.
Group revenues, excluding discontinued operations, fell to $68.2 million, a decrease of $0.3 million or 0.4% on prior year. Advertising revenues were flat year on year.
The radio broadcaster is majority owned by Nine Entertainment Co.
Commenting on the results, Macquarie Media Limited (MML) chief executive officer Adam Lang said:
“The six months to 31 December 2018 featured the delivery of sustained audience leadership by our top rating stations 2GB in Sydney and 3AW in Melbourne. 4BC finished the year with the best audience result since 2013 and, in 2018, 6PR has proven to be capable of leading the talk radio audience in Perth. We are well set up to build on that success in 2019.
“Our Macquarie Sports Radio network was launched in April 2018 and has been refined throughout the year. We are pleased with the development of the format to date and confident that our audience and revenue will continue to grow as we head into the football season.
“Our sales team has improved customer service to advertisers by connecting our large and affluent audience with an increased range of solutions on our broadcast and digital assets. We have grown revenue on our News Talk network of stations by 4% over the prior period. We also continue to see the benefit of our advertisers connecting with both the News Talk and Macquarie Sports Radio audiences through live sport.
“We have seen a contraction, below prior year period, of advertising spends in the December, January and February months and a shortening of booking cycles. Whilst we are now seeing more positive signs for March to June revenues, it is extremely difficult to forecast the impacts of the NSW election in March and the expected federal election in May, a subdued housing market, and variable business and consumer confidence.
“Our HY 2019 earnings (underlying EBITDA) were 4.9% below the prior year result driven by a 0.4% decline in revenue and a 1% increase in costs. We maintain a very high focus on cost saving and efficiency opportunities in order to consistently deliver a strong return to our shareholders in this fiscal year.”
Bartley, former CEO of creative agency Saatchi & Saatchi, said: “Eve’s mission is to grow brands at the speed of culture, by creating meaningful connections through engaging branded content, experiences, events and consulting services. This will be achieved through the simple and powerful formula of Data + Insights + Ideas, all delivered at scale.”
Eve will work with Pacific’s insights team headed up by Rebecca Alexander-Head, head of insights & strategy, and Malcolm Miller, cultural insights manager.
Gereurd Roberts, CEO of Pacific, said: “While there are publishers that have in-house content solutions, creative is often an add-on to the media buy. We believe there is a bigger need and opportunity for a premium content and marketing offering that brings together strategy, ideas and marketing capability with audience intel and content DNA. This is Eve’s clear point of difference.”
Cameron, who joins Eve from branded content agency Emotive, said: “The merging of brands and culture continues, and our team of multi-platform creatives understand the significance of using genuine insights to create entertainment-led, culturally relevant advertising as a value exchange for our audience’s time spent engaging with brands.”
—
Top Photo: [L-R] Rebecca Alexander-Head, Malcolm Miller, Simone Bartley and Andrew Cameron
By James Manning
The special guest on Mediaweek TV on the Your Money channel last week was NBL owner Larry Kestelman.
The investor and sports fan spoke to Mediaweek about why he bought the League:
“I’m sure a lot of people thought that I was completely crazy in investing this much time, money and effort into a sport that generally to commercialise is very difficult. I have to say it’s proven even more difficult than I thought. I thought [owning a] club was hard. But turning the League around was even harder, but I feel very much that in three and a half years we’ve built an amazing team. We work with some of Australia’s best brands now that have showed the same sort of belief in the product that we’ve created as we have. We have worked with five out of the five most trusted brands in Australia in the sport.”
NBL income streams
Kestelman: “The number one thing that has to be done for any business is to actually fix the pillars, the basics of the business, and the first one or two years was really figuring out what business we were actually in. What is the product? We’re actually in the business of entertainment, so we look at ourselves as an entertainment product and part of that entertainment is the quality of the game on the court. We had to fix what was happening on the court and then off the court for corporates, fans, both at the game and on the TV screen. That’s been the labour of love and a lot of hard work.
“A big part of it is in sponsorships and partnerships. How do we get outcomes for our business partners, for their businesses? That’s how we live and breathe as a business to understand their business and to get them outcomes through a platform that everyone loves, which is sport.
“The difference with us is, because it’s owned by business people, we really dive into understanding their businesses a lot more and figuring out how we can use our product to get outcomes for them.”
On new team owner Crocmedia
“They’re enjoying it and it’s certainly great for Melbourne United because they expose them to the range of clients that they have. Crocmedia is led by Craig Hutchison, who is very, very creative and he finds ways to bundle products together to expose new people to the game. I think they are a happy owner and the club is very happy as well.”
Watch Your Money’s interview with Larry Kestelman here.
• Hear him speak about NBL media rights and what he learnt from Patrick Delany.
The Big Bash League has wrapped up with a memorable grand final that saw the Melbourne Renegades snatch an improbable victory as the Melbourne Stars looked like cruising to a win.
The semifinals ratings late last week saw metro crowds of 527,000 on Thursday and then 548,000 on Friday.
Seven’s BBL audiences have never matched what Network 10 did the previous year. Even when factoring in the additional numbers watching Fox Cricket (which 10 never had to compete with), the total viewing this season hasn’t matched the 10 2017-18 numbers since January 6 – until the finals.
The grand final numbers on Seven on Sunday are as follows:
• 1st Session: 681,000 (Metro 475,000 Regional 206,000)
• 2nd Session: 877,000 (Metro 600,000 Regional 277,000)
• Post Game: 1,164,000 (Metro 777,000 Regional 386,000)
There was some commentary about the poor state of rugby ratings on television recently.
However the first weekend numbers for the launch of the SuperRugby season were strong for Fox Sports. Whether or not this new momentum can be retained as other football codes move in remains to be seen.
• Friday: Brumbies v Rebels 56,000
• Saturday: Waratahs v Hurricanes 106,000, Blues v Crusaders 58,000
An early season game of rugby league screened on FTA and STV on the weekend. The Friday match in Melbourne featured Australian Indigenous All Stars V New Zealand Maori Kiwis.
The audience watching on Nine was 468,000 (Metro 307,000 Regional 162,000).
There was an extra 84,000 watching on Fox League.
The W-League Grand Final was a cracking match with some great skills and plenty of goals.
The TV broadcasters had 22,000 watching on Saturday afternoon via Fox Sports and then less than 50,000 tuning in on Viceland on FTA.
It’s another week at the top for Ariana Grande making it a month leading the chart for 7 Rings. The Ariana track is joined by 11 other tunes in the top 50 from Ariana’s new album this week.
The most popular of those is Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored at #2 which gives Ariana another rare chart moment – the top two songs on the chart.
Two other artists managed to break into the top 50 on debut this week:
#24 Khalid with Talk
#28 The Chainsmokers with Who Do You Love featuring 5 Seconds Of Summer which charts just days before The Chainsmokers arrive for a Nova Red Room and festival appearances in Sydney and Melbourne.
After a memorable performance at the Grammy Awards on Monday, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper climb back up the top 10 as their former #1 Shallow sits at #6 after 10 weeks.
Ariana Grande tops both charts this week – here with her fourth album Thank U, Next. All 12 album tracks have infiltrated the singles chart this week.
Also pushing in amongst the chart-hogging superstars this week is the fourth album from Sydney band Sticky Fingers, Yours To Keep. Three of those four have now peaked in the top 10 with Land Of Pleasure at #3 in 2014 and then Westway (The Glitter & The Slums) at #1 in 2016.
Grammy movers this week included Dua Lipa’s self-titled debut album returning to the chart at #13 following her Grammy win for Best New Talent.
Cardi B jumped 19 places to #26 with her top 5 album Invasion Of Privacy following becoming the first female to win a Grammy for Best Rap Album.
The long-awaited action-RPG has sold millions out of the gate, and offers a denouement to narrative threads that date back to the first game… which was released in 2002. It’s convoluted but largely successful, and very much a love letter to Disney and Pixar, taking players to the worlds of Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Winnie the Pooh, Frozen, Tangled, Big Hero 6 and more.
There’s very little movement elsewhere in the top 10, with only two games that weren’t in last week’s chart – the newly-released Monster Energy Supercross 2, which creeps in at number eight, and the return of Just Dance 2019 at the very tail.
There’ll most certainly be a shakeup in the coming weeks, however. Much-delayed Xbox One exclusive Crackdown 3 has finally seen the light of day, even if it has proven to be rather disappointing, while the tense, post-apocalyptic shooter Metro Exodus sets a new benchmark for the series. Ubisoft has also just launched Far Cry: New Dawn, which follows on from Far Cry 5, taking players back to Hope County 17 years later.
It’s also worth discussing Apex Legends, which is arguably the biggest phenomenon in gaming right now, but isn’t represented on sales charts. This free-to-play battle royale from the studio behind Titanfall builds upon the likes of PUBG and Fortnite, but innovates with intuitive squad-based gameplay, well-designed player archetypes and a superb map. The game hit 25 million total players in about a week, with two million concurrent players at its peak. It’s been very well-received by fans and critics alike.
Nine won the first four nights of the week and then Saturday in both primary and combined channel share.
The closest Seven got on any of those nights was Tuesday when it trailed by just 1.4 in primary share.
Seven won Thursday and Friday nights with the help of the Big Bash League semifinals. Seven’s primary share bobbed above 20% on the first six nights of the week, only sinking under 16% on Saturday.
It’s hard to get away from the fact that 10 had a shocker and a first week of survey it would like to put behind it. Share hovered around 11% on the first three nights of the week, less than half of what each of its FTA competitors rated. The biggest miss was on Wednesday though when Changing Rooms returned nearly two decades later with a new host on a new channel and only managed to crack 200,000. The second episode did a little better, but by the end of the week 10 bumped the remaining episodes to Fridays and Saturdays.
The year-on-year comparisons are worth noting. Seven dropped dramatically, Nine was up on 10 was exactly where it started survey 2018. (A stat that was helped by a near record 10 Saturday low share of 4.9% in week 7 last year.)
Week 7 primary shares 2019 (Week 7 2018 in brackets)
• Nine- 22.8% (19.35)
• Seven -21.4% (27.3%)
• 10- 9.8% (9.8%)
• ABC- 12.6% (10.8%)
• SBS- 3.8% (3.7%)
Week 7 2019 Best of the week
• Married At First Sight Monday 1,297,000
• Nine News Sunday 938,000
• My Kitchen Rules Sunday 1,046,000
• Seven News Sunday 951,000
• I’m A Celebrity Sunday Elimination 649,000
• I’m A Celebrity Monday Elimination 600,000
• Death In Paradise 658,000
• ABC News Sunday 645,000
• Secrets Of The Manor House 233,000
• Michael Portillo’s Abandoned Britain 222,000
Sunday: Week 8 2019
By James Manning
FTA TV news/current affairs
• Seven News 960,000
• Nine News 935,000
• 60 Minutes 661,000
• ABC News 628,000
• Sunday Night 416,000″
• 10 News First 235,000
• Insiders 285,000,000
• The Project 196,000/356,000
• Offsiders 162,000,000
• SBS World News 118,000
Breakfast TV
• Sunrise 227,000
• Today 187,000
Seven has calculated that the combined audience watching the Big Bash League Grand Final was 703,000 (national average Seven + Fox Cricket). That means the total audience was up 8% on 10’s broadcast in 2018. However the FTA average was down.
In primetime, My Kitchen Rules started its week on 905,000, down on the previous Sunday’s season high of 1,046,000.
Sunday Night then returned to the schedule, much earlier than usual, with 416,000.
Married At First Sight again took top honours with 1,291,000, which is the second-biggest audience of the year.
60 Minutes was a timeslot winner, but its audience of 661,000 was down on 788,000 last week.
The grand final night of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! helped 10 lift Sunday share week on week from 10.4% to 12.8%.
The year-on-year numbers for the Winner Announced also recorded modest growth. (The grand final was screened in Week 11 in 2018.)
The numbers for last night (and last year in brackets)
• I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! Winner Announced 896,000 (870,000)
• I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! Grand Finale 684,000 (696,000)
Earlier in the night The Project did 356,000 after 7pm, up from 298,000 a week ago.
Later in the night NCIS was on 308,000.
Part two of Magical Land Of Oz did 515,000 after launching on 552,000.
Episode three of The Cry did 481,000 after is started on 574,00 and did 486,000 for episode two. The UK drama continues to be one of the hottest FTA properties on BVOD via iview.
Another Sunday and another Sinkhole doco according to our printed TV guide. However a repeat doco on Pyramids was screened at 7.30pm with 171,000 watching.
The first of the two-part The Kennedys: A Fatal Ambition then grew the audience to 196,000.
FRIDAY METRO | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven | Nine | 10 | SBS | |||||
ABC | 14.8% | 7 | 22.9% | 9 | 17.4% | 10 | 8.4% | SBS One | 4.0% |
ABC 2 | 2.8% | 7TWO | 4.0% | GO! | 4.1% | 10 Bold | 3.7% | VICELAND | 1.9% |
ABC ME | 0.4% | 7mate | 3.2% | GEM | 2.4% | 10 Peach | 2.1% | Food Net | 1.0% |
ABC NEWS | 1.3% | 7flix | 2.7% | 9Life | 2.5% | NITV | 0.1% | ||
7Food | 0.4% | ||||||||
TOTAL | 19.4% | 33.1% | 26.4% | 14.2% | 6.9% |
SATURDAY METRO | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven | Nine | 10 | SBS | |||||
ABC | 14.4% | 7 | 15.5% | 9 | 19.4% | 10 | 7.3% | SBS One | 3.8% |
ABC 2 | 3.7% | 7TWO | 3.7% | GO! | 6.0% | 10 Bold | 2.1% | VICELAND | 2.1% |
ABC ME | 0.5% | 7mate | 3.1% | GEM | 3.5% | 10 Peach | 3.0% | Food Net | 1.0% |
ABC NEWS | 1.6% | 7flix | 5.6% | 9Life | 2.8% | NITV | 0.1% | ||
7Food | 0.7% | ||||||||
TOTAL | 20.2% | 28.6% | 31.8% | 12.4% | 7.0% |
SUNDAY METRO | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven | Nine | 10 | SBS | |||||
ABC | 12.2% | 7 | 18.4% | 9 | 24.2% | 10 | 12.8% | SBS One | 4.8% |
ABC 2 | 3.3% | 7TWO | 2.4% | GO! | 3.2% | 10 Bold | 1.9% | VICELAND | 0.7% |
ABC ME | 0.5% | 7mate | 3.8% | GEM | 3.1% | 10 Peach | 1.8% | Food Net | 1.1% |
ABC NEWS | 1.1% | 7flix | 1.7% | 9Life | 2.4% | NITV | 0.1% | ||
7Food | 0.5% | ||||||||
TOTAL | 17.2% | 26.8% | 32.9% | 16.4% | 6.7% |
SUNDAY REGIONAL | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven Affiliates | Nine Affiliates | 10 Affiliates | SBS | |||||
ABC | 13.0% | 7 | 19.3% | 9 | 19.2% | WIN | 11.9% | SBS One | 4.9% |
ABC 2 | 3.6% | 7TWO | 3.2% | GO! | 3.9% | WIN Bold | 1.8% | VICELAND | 1.4% |
ABC ME | 1.0% | 7mate | 3.3% | GEM | 4.8% | WIN Peach | 1.3% | Food Net | 1.1% |
ABC NEWS | 1.3% | 7flix | 2.0% | 9Life | 2.4% | Sky News on WIN | 0.4% | NITV | 0.1% |
TOTAL | 18.9% | 27.8% | 30.3% | 15.4% | 7.5% |
SUNDAY METRO ALL TV | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FTA | STV | ||||||||
87.1% | 12.9% |
Friday Top Ten
Saturday Top Ten
Shares all people, 6pm-midnight, Overnight (Live and AsLive), Audience numbers FTA metro, Sub TV national
Source: OzTAM and Regional TAM 2018. The Data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) without the prior written consent of OzTAM
In newspaper ads the ABC last week said it was seeking a “strong collaborative leader”.
Many see current acting managing director David Anderson as the ideal choice in this context, because of his previous role as the ABC’s director of entertainment and specialist, and a career of nearly 30 years in broadcast TV and production.
Sources close to the process said no final decision had been made in terms of timing, but there has been talk within the government regarding when the appointment should be announced.
They said the Prime Minister’s Office was handed a shortlist of three candidates in January by the nominations panel.
Holding Redlich national managing partner Ian Robertson is considered a favourite to take out the job.
Tajer, 48, who has spent more than 20 years in the ad industry, most recently at tech giant Amazon, said “more and more so, clients want simplicity”.
“I don’t think our clients care that much about our brands, I think they’re more focused on their own brands,” Tajer said.
Foxtel boss Patrick Delany has confirmed Foxtel and Netflix have signed a partnership, which will mean Foxtel subscribers will be able to stream Netflix on their pay-TV set-top boxes.
Viewers could switch between Foxtel’s hotly anticipated Game Of Thrones series finale and the third season of Netflix’s royal drama The Crown with the touch of a button on a Foxtel iQ remote.
Foxtel chief executive Patrick Delany said the new boxes and the upgraded IQ4 had much higher “attachment” rates and lower churn than their predecessors, which had less storage and fewer features.
“So we really want to get as many of those IQ4 boxes out there as possible. And being proactive rather than reactive with our customers is a really big theme,” Delany said.
Foxtel could also soon be streaming Netflix series and movies through their set-top boxes after Delany confirmed the two companies were in talks.
Delany said there had been criticism from customers that they never heard from the company and that the company wanted to address that as part of its renewed emphasis on customer retention.
“We have a strategy of 50 for 50; general entertainment for under-50-year-olds for 50 weeks a year. I think what we have proven over the summer is there is clearly a big audience for general entertainment programming at that time of year and there’s an audience there that are willing to watch that don’t want to watch sport.”
News Corp said 25% of revenue generated from the wrap is being donated back to Townsville.
Heidi Sayers, sales director at News Regional Media said: “With such a strong presence in regional Queensland, known as the voice of the region, we felt it was vital for News Regional Media to assist the region, helping to keep the spirit and hope alive within the local community.”
Jenna Cairney, editor of the Townsville Bulletin, said: “As someone who was also personally impacted by the floods, I’m so grateful to my colleagues in the national sales team who took the initiative to call on our clients for help. Collectively, we’ve created something that will give back to our local community in every way, and we thank you.”
In a submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission made by FreeTV as part of the world-first inquiry into the impact of the digital giants on media companies, the broadcasting lobby group asked for additional rules that would give them more control over their content and advertising on the tech platforms.
In an upcoming blog post seen by The Sydney Morning Herald, Facebook’s vice-president of policy for Asia-Pacific, Simon Milner, criticises additional regulations on algorithms proposed by the Australian competition watchdog as part of a world-first inquiry.
“The ACCC has not made a case or provided any evidence for why they believe an algorithm regulator is a necessary, effective and proportionate response to the business model challenges facing news media,” Milner says.
“More importantly, people, not regulators, should decide what they see in their news feeds.”
Created with the Heart Foundation’s new media partner News Corp Australia, “Serial Killer” taps into audience fascination with true crime stories by highlighting the criminal behind a horrifying 51 deaths per day in Australia.
The four-week integrated print, digital and broadcast media and marketing campaign, led by News Corp’s media and marketing solutions division newsamp, features high impact wraps of News Corp’s Sunday metro newspapers, and a takeover of the True Crime Australia site, revealing the “criminal” as heart disease – the nation’s worst ever serial killer.
News Corp Australia chief operating officer, publishing, Damian Eales said: “We are proud to partner with the Heart Foundation to help stop the nation’s worst killer and save lives.”
“Serial Killer” will run for four weeks across News Corp’s print and digital mastheads, with a homepage takeover on news.com.au and sponsorship of the True Crime Australia site, supported by TV and radio ads, and editorial and educational videos about heart disease on News Corp Australia and Heart Foundation platforms.
As part of the high impact creative, prominent individuals have been commissioned to share their personal experience with heart disease, including retired NSW Police assistant commissioner Clive Small and editor of The Sunday Telegraph, Mick Carroll.
It followed controversy around the “C word” being censored by Married at First Sight.
The moment happened when Group 2 contestants were reflecting on their first impressions of one another.
On social media Seven came under fire for ignorant language and sensationalist promos.
While shows like All Together Now have done much work for inclusivity in an early evening timeslot, it didn’t take long for MKR to overlook it for the sake of a reality controversy.
Seven has also previously signed an industry Diversity Charter:
We aim to actively reflect the diversity of Australian society at every level of our workforce, by gender, age, race, sexual orientation, nationality, religion and disability or geographic location, both in our employees and the stories we tell.
The gossip guru, who beat runner-up Yvie Jones, a former Gogglebox star, and retired AFL great Shane Crawford to take the top spot, said he “hounded 10 for the last couple of years to be on the show”.
“Last year, I got in touch [with 10] again and asked, ‘would you consider me?’” he said.
“They were like, ‘sorry we are all full up’. But if you don’t raise your hand in this world, no one is going to call on you, [so] I didn’t give up.”
For the first time in five seasons, the finale was pre-recorded with the cast and crew all flown home before the show had even gone to air on Sunday night.
The behaviour on the hit show has been so controversial that Marks is understood to have demanded episodes be re-edited to tone down some of the outrageous conduct for fear it will damage the network’s broader reputation.
Marks is understood to have called a meeting of key executives, including director of television Michael Healy, following an episode in which “husband and wife” Ines Basic and Bronson Norrish engaged in an ugly screaming match.
Just over six months out from the 2019 edition of rugby’s showpiece event in Japan this September, rights to broadcast the tournament in Australia remain unsold. While this has raised eyebrows within both the TV industry and in rugby circles, World Rugby, which is handling the process together with sports agency IMG, insists negotiations are on track.