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Seven’s highlights:

• Strong metro TV revenue share growth; 38.4% in 1H (36.4% in 1H18), despite softer 2Q ad market
• Group operating expenses flat including cricket costs
• Underlying EBIT of $146.8m, down 4% YoY excluding 53rd week in FY18
• Increased cost out reduction target from $20-30m to $30-40m across FY19

The managing director and chief executive officer of Seven West Media, Tim Worner, commented:

“We promised to improve our ratings and revenue share this half as we focused on the core and we have delivered, despite a softer second quarter advertising market.

“We continue to transform our operating model at pace, driving greater cost efficiencies and increasing our group cost out targets. We absorbed the new cricket costs, maintaining a flat cost base in the half.

“At the same time growth in new revenue streams is outstripping our expectations with 7plus, 7Studios and our investment portfolio all delivering strong growth.

“2018 was a truly outstanding year for our TV business. Seven was Australia’s most-watched network, and Channel 7 was Australia’s most-watched channel, both for the 12th year in succession. Even more remarkably, Network Seven achieved the highest commercial viewing share in ratings history, and led all the key demographics with our own highest ever shares of each.

“We also performed strongly in the battle for revenue, ending 2018 with the highest share of metro TV advertising, 39.2%. We expect to be number one in both ratings and revenue in the current Jan-Jun half.

“Our acquisition of the cricket rights, at a lower cost per hour than the tennis, has paid off with ratings exceeding our projections. Across summer, Seven grew its share of every key demographic throughout the day and in primetime and we scored a 40%+ share of viewing on 39 days – more than any network has ever achieved. We are now broadcasting premium sport every week of the year, and will be for years to come.

“Just over a year after launch, 7plus is surpassing our expectations and had the number one share of commercial FTA BVOD viewing in the final quarter of 2018.

“Seven Studios continues its strong upward trajectory, with EBIT on target for a seventh consecutive year of growth. Our shows are now engaging audiences around the world, with a slew of shows debuting on Netflix in the half to global acclaim.”

Financial Results

Seven West Media reports a profit after income tax of $85.8 million on total revenue of $798.9 million. Underlying net profit after tax was $91.8 million, down 7.8 per cent on the previous half year

EBITDA of $161.5 million and EBIT of $146.8 million were down 8.8 per cent and 7.9 per cent respectively versus the prior corresponding period.

Cost Management

Group operating costs (including depreciation and amortisation) of $652.1 million were effectively flat. The company has undertaken a cost out program of $135 million to $145 million across the 2017-2019 financial years with a targeted net reduction in costs of $50-60 million after factoring in the new cricket costs, content investment, AFL uplift and spectrum charge. In the period, Seven’s costs increased 2.0 per cent reflecting cricket costs with savings skewed to the second half. The West and Pacific recorded cost reductions of 9.0 per cent and 6.7 per cent respectively.

Outlook

Seven’s strategic priorities remain unchanged:

Focusing on the core, driving greater ratings and revenue share performance

Transforming the operating model and continuing to identify and extract operational efficiencies and cost savings; and

Growing new revenue streams.

This summary supplied by CRA:

More than 4.21 million people, or 30% of the population aged 10 and over, listened to DAB+ digital radio each week in the five metro capital cities in 2018, up from 3.62 million in 2017.

The commercial radio industry’s digital-only radio stations, which offer alternative formats including chillout music, country, specialist rock, 80s and retail services, reached 1.35 million listeners each week, a 30% jump over the previous year.

CRA chief executive officer Joan Warner said the growth figures were pleasing and would open the way for further commercialisation.

“Digital radio represents one of the growth areas for commercial radio. More listeners are discovering the new stations and more media agencies are including DAB+ as part of their advertising buy,” Warner said.

Consumers need to upgrade their AM/FM radios to DAB+ radios to tune in to the digital-only stations or listen via streaming. The total number of DAB+ radios in Australia, including those in cars, rose to 4.73 million at the end of 2018, a 24% increase from 3.80 million at the end of 2017.

Sixty-five per cent of all new vehicles sold in Australia were factory-fitted with DAB+ radio in 2018.

The latest data, compiled from GfK radio surveys, GfK sales reporting and new vehicle sales data provided by Glass’s Automotive Business Intelligence, shows DAB+ grew strongly last year:

• Weekly listeners to DAB+ radio rose 16% to 4.21 million
• Commercial digital-only stations gained 315,000 listeners
• More than 930,000 DAB+ radios were sold in 2018, including 745,000 in new vehicles

The number of DAB+ portable and home receivers in market totalled 2.56 million at the end of 2018, and the number of vehicles with DAB+ reached 2.17 million.

DAB+ technology offers superior sound quality and up to 30 extra commercial and public radio stations. These include Triple M Aussie, which launched on Australia Day with an all-Australian music format, the Christmas pop-up station Elf Radio, as well as Coles Radio, Triple M Classic Rock, The 80s iHeartRadio, NTS News Talk Sport, Koffee, Easy Hits, Kinderling Kids Radio and KIX Country Music.

By James Manning

Every Cloud Production partners Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger have been excited about their new drama, and their first on commercial TV.

Called Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries, the producers found a home on Seven and they told Mediaweek, Home And Away is a good lead-in and Thursdays mean they won’t have to go head-to-head with either a cooking show or people getting married.

Eagger explained they loved doing the original drama and how they devised a spin-off. “We are keeping the original series alive with a feature film in post production that will star Essie Davis and Nathan Page – Miss Fisher And The Crypt Of Tears. Village will distribute either later this year or early next year.

“For some time we have been looking at how we could keep the brand going in other ways. We had considered prequels where [lead character] Phryne was a younger person. But then the idea of a sequel and setting it in the 60s came up and we were attracted to the decade for lots of reasons.”

Cox: “The 60s were a little similar to the 20s [where the original series is set] in that women were having new opportunities they hadn’t had before. Miss Fisher was a celebration of opportunity for women and we realised we could also do that in the 60s with the long lost niece.

“To have the new character Peregrine Fisher [played by Geraldine Hakewill] learning from the older generation was a huge attraction for.

“Like Phryne she comes from a working class background, but unlike her it was a battle with a single mother who was living in a caravan park.”

Eagger noted that the traditional home of Miss Fisher was the ABC and there had been discussions around the extension of the brand. Carole Sklan was the commissioning editor when the original series started. “There has been a change of drama heads and Sally Riley came in and commissioned some fantastic shows like Mystery Road. They would have liked more of our original series, but they didn’t really have an appetite for brand extension.”

“At that point we thought there was more juice left in the tank and we started exploring other options. We were talking to Seven about another series when this came up. They were intrigued by it and willing to jump quite quickly.”

The producers have made four Ms Fisher telemovies for Seven and admitted they think it amazing what people working on the production have been able to achieve in a short period of time.

“It was a challenge for everyone,” said Eagger. “We had Beth Frey as producer, Fiona Banks was the start-up director, Ben Bangay was the designer and Maria Pattison was the costume designer. We have been very fortunate with the team.”

As to what was more challenging for the producers – the 20s or the 60s – they told Mediaweek: “There is more of the 60s left than the 20s so you are more restricted where you can go in the 20s,” said Cox. “The closer you get to modern times it gets a little easier.”

“It is still hard,” added Eager. “When we did the original series we found it was much easier to do it in Melbourne than Sydney. But when we were doing the film, because of so many renos and things under construction, it became really tricky for the 20s.

“The 60s is also hard and sometimes harder to find something distinctive from that period. The fourth telemovie is set in a cooking school and it is such fun having food from the 60s.”

As to their own TV tastes: “I tend to watch other murder mysteries to compare to or to learn from. Fiona and I have slightly different tastes,” said Cox. “My priority is watching other Australian drama.”

“We do try and keep up with watching Australian dramas and it is good to watch the writing, directing and acting,” added Eagger. “It is important to support other peoples’ work. There is so much variety though that it is hard to keep up. Almost every day someone is telling me about a new series to watch.”

As to where they base their production company Every Cloud Productions, they joke they are all over the place.

“We are everywhere,” laughed Eager. “Head office is in Melbourne, but Deb has a satellite office in Byron Bay.”

“Occasionally I drag an Every Cloud production up north,” said Cox. “It is a bit hard to do either the 20s or 60s up there though. But I have managed with series like Gods Of Wheat Street, East Of Everything and Deadlock.”

Every Cloud has a fair bit on at the moment with development underway on SeaChange for Nine.

Nine’s head of programming Hamish Turner told Mediaweek this month the hope is that Nine will have episodes to screen later in 2019.

Cox explained they overlap projects as she works on development on the next project while Eagger works on post on recently filmed productions. “We do a lot for a small company.”

“We also try and nurture and bring in newer talent and we can then share the load with others.”

Eager: “Our fantastic Every Cloud team includes Drew Grove and Mary Pettigrove.”

The production house has had major series with ABC, Seven and Nine, but as yet no streaming platforms have commissioned. “There is still room,” they both laughed.

“We have done most of our work with the ABC so it is very exciting to be working with Seven on Mod and Nine on SeaChange. We do love FTA and we do love television even though we are doing a movie, which was more to keep the brand alive.”

As to whether there is much difference working between a public broadcaster and a commercial channel, Eager initially joked, “Ask us in a year.” They then added together: “It has been really enjoyable. They are smart people at Seven and we work closely with Julie McGauran. Same at Nine with Andy Ryan and Jo Rooney.”

Cox: “We are not just blowing smoke up their wazoos. They are respectful and they contribute a lot.”

The producers are expecting good business for the telemovies outside of Australia. “Strong positive female characters sell,” said Cox.

“All broadcasters who took the original series want Modern as well. An international version will be produced with two parts for each episode, giving us an eight episode series if people prefer that.”

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Top Photo: Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger

In collaboration with Foxtel, Fox Sports and Google, Mindshare has built Monty – which the partners are calling the greatest cricketing mind ever created.

This release from Mindshare:

Monty is a custom machine learning model designed to spot when and how wickets would fall in live games, in real time.

Conceived as part of Foxtel’s promise to provide cricket like never before, the cutting-edge innovation has quickly evolved from a marketing platform to a customer experience.

Thanks to the ground-breaking machine learning project, Monty can spot a wicket up to 5 minutes before it falls – and instantly alert fans to watch it live on Fox Cricket.

Monty has watched every single ball bowled by the Australian National Men’s team the past 18 months more than 500,000 times and has built the patterns into a bespoke Wicket Warning system for Foxtel viewers and cricket fans.

The machine learning model works by recognising patterns in player behaviour based on past form and the live conditions of the pitch. When Monty’s confident a wicket will fall the model autonomously deploys new creative and adapts bidding across dynamic display, pre-roll and digital outdoor so fans never miss a dramatic moment on the pitch.

Over the summer cricket season, Monty has been continuously learning, and has predicted close to 498 wickets across international cricket games and is delivering unprecedented cut through and cost-effective conversions for Foxtel.

Monty’s already making an impression with cricket fans. Foxtel enjoyed a double-digit increase in weekly sales growth following his promotion into the starting line-up.

As the power of Monty’s predictions became clear, Mindshare designed new experiences for fans to tap into his cricketing insight. Monty’s predictions were integrated into the Fox Cricket app during the Boxing Day Test, with push notifications alerting fans to the next wicket published over the course of the biggest game of the summer.

Fan support saw Monty step into homes across the country, and as a Google Assistant experience on Google Home allowed fans to say “Hey Google, ask Monty for the next wicket” and listen as he described how comfortable the current batsman should be at the crease.

With one code under his belt, the team are now looking towards the winter season for the evolution of this ground-breaking campaign.

Christopher Pocock, senior marketing manager at Foxtel, was quick to see the potential in pioneering machine learning: “Monty’s exceeded all expectations and earned his spot on the team by delivering results every match. This media innovation is a perfect demonstration of how creativity and data can combine to create a totally new experience for fans.”

Jack Smyth, Mindshare head of innovation, says: “We’re at the cutting edge of creativity and data. Monty’s proof that a new era of analytics is here and we’ve ensured Foxtel and Fox Sports are leading the way. Monty’s learning more with every single ball and working with Foxtel and Fox Sports we’re going to build on our first mover advantage. To see an idea leap from messaging all the way through to a totally new way to watch the game is incredibly exciting – and only possible thanks to the Foxtel team’s appetite for innovation.”

Libby Blakey, Business Affair Director at Warner Music Australia; Karen Don, Senior Vice President, Legal and Business Affairs, Australia and New Zealand at Universal Music Australia; Sophie McArthur, General Manager, Digital & Business Development Australia, New Zealand & Asia at Sony Music Entertainment; and Natalie Waller, Head of ABC Music & Events, have all been appointed to the ARIA Board following recent changes to the Constitution.

At the 2018 AGM, ARIA members confirmed amendments to the constitution designed to increase diversity and inclusiveness, which has led to these recent appointments.

These four new board members will take their place on the ARIA Board alongside existing directors Denis Handlin AO (Chair, Sony Music Australia), George Ash (Universal Music Australia), Sebastian Chase (MGM), Niko Nordstrom (Warner Music Australia) and David Vodicka (Rubber).

ARIA board [L-R]: David Vodicka, Sebastian Chase, Natalie Waller, Dan Rosen, Karen Don, Niko Nordstrom, Denis Handlin AO (Chair), Emily Crews, Andrew Smith and Sophie McArthur Photo by Cole Bennetts

ARIA has also announced Emily Crews, Head of Synchronisation at Warner Music Australia, has been selected as the inaugural participant for the ARIA Observership program. The program aims to provide a professional development experience for rising talent within ARIA member companies to learn more about the fundamentals, principles and functions of boards, decision making processes and corporate governance. Crews is now invited to observe all 2019 ARIA Board meetings.

Denis Handlin AO, ARIA Chairman and Chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment Australia and New Zealand and President, Asia said: “ARIA is delighted to welcome Libby, Karen, Sophie and Natalie to the ARIA Board and we congratulate Emily Crews on her selection in the ARIA Observership program. Each of these quality executives will bring valuable additional perspectives and experiences that will further advance and benefit the Board and industry as a whole.”

Dan Rosen, Chief Executive of ARIA said, “I congratulate Emily on becoming the inaugural participant for the ARIA Observership program. ARIA is pleased to be able to offer Emily this unique opportunity and we look forward to her joining us at our Board meetings in 2019.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Libby, Karen, Sophie and Natalie to the ARIA Board of Directors. It is extremely exciting to have four of our industry’s most respected and passionate people to bring their experience to the ARIA Board.”

The first ARIA board meeting for 2019 took place on Thursday 7 February.

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Top Photo: ARIA’a new board members [L-R]: Dan Rosen, Karen Don, Natalie Waller, Sophie McArthur, Emily Crews and Denis Handlin AO (Chair) Photo by Cole Bennetts

Pacific Star Network managing director and Crocmedia’s chief executive officer Craig Hutchison said that acquiring Riewoldt was a major coup.

“To sign Nick is a major win for our audience and only adds to our exceptional stable of talent,” Hutchison said.

Riewoldt will join Garry Lyon and Tim Watson on 1116 SEN breakfast every Monday morning beginning Feburary 25 and will co-host the show for a number of weeks in July.

He will also join Gerard Whateley on 1116 SEN from 9am to 10am every Thursday to provide insights into all the hot AFL topics and preview the round ahead.

Crocmedia’s newest recruit also joins the AFL Nation team, calling games on Australia’s biggest football radio broadcast.

Riewoldt said he was looking forward to discussing AFL and sharing his passion for US sports.

“I’m delighted to be joining the team to share my insight, experiences and passion for football with SEN’s loyal listeners,” Riewoldt said.

“There are some great people at SEN working across a number of interesting platforms. I’m looking forward to joining the footy commentary team throughout the year, engaging in some banter, fun and analysis in the mornings with Gaz and Tim, as well as being a part of Whateley weekly.

“These guys are real pros and extraordinarily knowledgeable across numerous sports so being able to share my thoughts with them and the listeners is something I’m very excited about. I love my American sports so it will be great to be able to talk all things US sports as well as the footy.”

For sporting fans in Adelaide, Riewoldt will join the breakfast show with Kane Cornes and Andrew Hayes on SEN SA across the year.

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Top Photo: Nick Riewoldt with SEN’s Garry Lyon, Gerard Whateley and Tim Watson

The changes include the promotion of national strategy director Graeme Wood to the new role of national head of futures and product; while Nancy Lan, previously national commercial partnerships director, has been charged with leading the Sydney office in the new role of managing director, Sydney.

Toby Barbour

Barbour said: “As the Human Experience Company, our focus is on understanding the new customer desire and brand need in a world of accelerated change and choice. Our strong performance in 2018 has created real momentum. As people experts, we are now positioned to amplify our value creation for clients, acting as part consumer behavioural science experts, customer experience specialists and brand storytellers. Our approach is testament to our commitment to delivering measurable value for our clients and strong return on experience.”

Effective immediately, changes to the leadership team include:

Graeme Wood – National Head of Futures & Product

This new role and function is a significant initiative aimed at delivering on the agency’s focus on providing people-based marketing solutions for clients; while also being at the forefront of new industry, and behavioural and human thinking. Wood’s focus will be to lead ‘Starcom Futures’. Previously known as the ‘Starcom Media Futures’, it has been developed to become an always on thought leadership platform, proprietary research, external brand perception and growing data, measurement, content and commerce revenue.

Sally Christian – National Head of Strategy

Taking over Graeme Wood’s role, Sally Christian will lead the strategy team and work with Business Directors to develop client business growth, and communication strategies that drive both business and human outcomes. Christian previously led the Suncorp strategy team.

Sev Griffiths – National Commercial Partnerships Director

Sev Griffiths, who has been contracting for Starcom, joins as National Commercial Partnerships Director. Griffiths plays an integral role in connecting investment and client business teams to optimise business planning and commercial value for the agency.

Nancy Lan – Managing Director Sydney

Previously National Commercial Partnerships Director, Nancy Lan will now lead Starcom Sydney, responsible for business performance, clients, talent and culture.

The changes build upon the addition last year of Simone Galletly as National Planning Director, and the return of Stu Carr as National Head of Measurement – both of whom are also on the leadership team.

Barbour added: “Our national structure is designed to leverage our strengths, and position Starcom for the future by elevating the value of human experience design thinking through our investment in commerce, content, data and talent.

“I would like to welcome both Sev and Sally to our leadership team. They bring significant business experience to our brand, with a history of creating highly-engaged teams, and the drive to help us take Starcom to the next level of growth and development. It is significant both today and for our future that we have been able to attract talent of this calibre, track record and leadership capability.”

As a content director, Bradley was the foundation programmer at Nova 100 and one of the architects of the Nova brand. More recently, he has programmed Radio Hauraki in New Zealand and Hot Tomato on the Gold Coast.

Triple M’s head of content Mike Fitzpatrick said, “With a consistent track record of success, Dan is the right person to lead Triple M Melbourne and we are delighted to have him back.

“It’s very exciting to add another experienced programmer of Dan’s calibre to the already strong Triple M content leadership team of Jamie Angel, Rex Morris, Shaun Gough, Matthew O’Reilly and Erica Hodge.”

Triple M Melbourne finished the 2018 ratings year on a 10+ share of 6.8%. The Hot Breakfast finished the year on 8.3%, which ranks it #4 FM.

The national drive show Kennedy Molloy also comes out of Melbourne and its latest ratings had it on 7.3% in that market.

Marvel series have long been a fixture on these charts from Parrot Analytics tacking demand for digital originals. This week there are two Marvel properties in the top 10 in Australia and one in New Zealand – Marvel’s The Punisher and Marvel’s Daredevil.

Topping the Digital Originals charts again is The Handmaid’s Tale with confirmation of a mid-year return keeping interest in the series peaking.

New to that chart this week is the third season of One Day At A Time, which is available on Netflix.

Yet to chart though is the new Eric Bana crime series based on a true case, Dirty John. The series was originally screened on Bravo in the US, but is on Netflix in Australia and New Zealand.

There was little movement on the Overall TV charts this week with Game Of Thrones remaining in top spot.

Nine’s Married At First Sight has now charted in both Australia and New Zealand, landing at #8 in NZ this week.

Four new releases made the top 10 and two are in the top five.

#1 Alita: Battle Angel $3.78m

The movie is based on Yukito Kishiro’s manga series Gunnm, but there are some battle-hardened box office veterans also helping ensure box office success – Titanic director and producers James Cameron and Jon Landau. Cameron has been working on the project for many years, originally delaying it to work on a little hit of his called Avatar. Contributing to post-production special effects was New Zealand’s Weta Digital. Fox opened the film on 453 screens with a screen average of $8,351. The last movie to open on more screens was How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World with 473 on the first weekend of January.

#2 What Men Want $1.88m

An opening weekend saw Paramount place the fantasy comedy starring Tracy Morgan and Taraji P Henson on 257 screens for a screen average of $7,326.

#3 Green Book $885,000

The fourth weekend for the still-Oscar hopeful (we will find out by this time next week) remains on 293 screens delivering a screen average of $3,023. Box office earn to-date is $7.48m.

#4 Escape Room $760,000

The second weekend of the horror movie saw earnings dip 42% as screens hosting the movie only dipped by four to 204. Earnings to-dare are on $2.46m.

#5 The Mule $723,000

Clint Eastwood’s final Hollywood outing was down 33% no doubt meaning this should be the movie legend’s last appearance in a box office top five. Screens showing the movie were actually up 15 to 306 with a total box office for Clint’s farewell on $7.61m after four weeks.

Other new releases:

#6 Happy Death Day 2U $627,000 (220 screens at $2,853)

#9 Gully Boy $438,000 (51 screens at $8,605 – best of the weekend)

Bohemian Rhapsody update: 16 week total on $53.05 still showing on 174 screens. Now #7 all time box office in Australia.

Monday: Week 8 2019

By James Manning

FTA TV news/current affairs

• Seven News 1,013,000/982,000
• Nine News 928,000/925,000
• A Current Affair 873,000
• ABC News 727,000
• 7.30 632,000
• Four Corners 568,000
• Media Watch 568,000
• The Project 237,000/439,000
• 10 News First 378,000
• Q&A 370,000
• SBS World News 106,000

Breakfast TV

• Sunrise 287,000
• Today 168,000

Seven

Could be a tough week for Seven with primary share under 20% for the first two nights of the second week of survey.

The 7pm switcheroo took place last night and it could take audiences some time to adjust.

Home And Away returned to the schedule with a 2019 launch crowd of 620,000.

My Kitchen Rules followed with what must be close to its smallest audience ever and certainly a low for 2019 – 709,000. The Monday audience a week ago was 906,000.

Instant Hotel then did 287,000 after launching with 385,000.

Nine

A Current Affair went to air without MKR as competition. The combo of that and a Reid Butler rumble with Roberta Williams lifted the audience to 873,000, the best so far this year.

Married At First Sight used the C word again last night (“cheaters”) with much celebration in the media so far today. The Monday crowd held over 1.2m for the fifth time in the last six episodes.

The new drama Bad Mothers then went to air with a launch audience of 691,000, which has to be a great result for the timeslot.

10

The channel was all about the launch of Dancing With The Stars last night. The Project featured a preview just before airtime with the hosts in their dressing gowns! Also on the show, and in the 6.30pm slot, was Celebrity winner Richard Reid who announced he was donating $10k of the winning to the charities for his Grand Final colleagues Yvie Jones and Shane Crawford. The episode did 439,000 after 7pm.

The Network can breathe a sigh of relief with the Dancing With The Stars result – an audience of 614,000 and great reviews on social, which could be an omen for a returning audience next week.

The episode ran to 9.50pm which was a reminder of some of the marathon episodes Seven used to screen.

ABC

Australian Story returned to the 8pm timeslot with a wonderful story about Jack Thompson and his health challenges. The first episode for 2019 did 648,000.

Four Corners then did 568,000 with Media Watch doing a forensic analysis of Married At First Sight with 568,000 watching.

SBS

The Monday royal family slot offered a repeat of The Queen’s Mother In Law, which was the channel’s best on 160,000.