By James Manning

Chief executive officer Grant Blackley spoke to Mediaweek about what was driving revenue, executive moves and the growth of their new podcasting platform, PodcastOne.

Metro radio revenue up with audience growth

Blackley: We have well and truly outperformed the market which has been driven by the stability of our schedule and an improvement in ratings with the FM + DAB plus audience coupled together.

There has been an 8.5% increase (367,000 people) in our reach because of our strategy of joining those audiences together.

You are having good performances from Fox breakfast, Triple M Brisbane and Hughesy & Kate’s national drive. What else would you list?

We saw a lift in Sydney, which we were pleased with, but the job is not done yet. At Triple M we are very confident about Moonman in the Morning and we think it will be broader and more appealing than The Grill Team. Mix in Perth had a wonderful year. Our Hit Network drive strategy is more than just Hughesy & Kate, don’t forget Carrie & Tommy. When we launched it people were asking why we had dual drive shows, they are no longer asking that question because of our dominant position in that longer drive slot. [From 3pm weekdays.]

There is also plenty of opportunity to grow to with Kennedy Molloy and the new Bec and Cosi show in Adelaide.

You no longer had cricket on radio or TV this summer

For radio, we advised Cricket Australia we wouldn’t bid for the rights. After two wonderful years of cricket we had to question the economic value and we made the call accordingly.

With regard to TV we didn’t have any choice with the move from cricket to tennis. I was one of the first people to congratulate Hugh Marks on that decision. The transition across has been seamless and there was a good result for Nine and for us. It did have a $4m impact to our television business in December. We will get a lift from the tennis though which will be included in our second half results.

Nine saved money by moving to tennis, but does it have any cost impact for SCA TV?

No. We have a fixed affiliation fee, which is a variable percentage. If they pay more or less for rights it doesn’t impact our agreement.

Is Guy Dobson proving to be irreplaceable?

At the moment what we are doing is doubling down on what is a very strong group of content executives. We are in a luxurious position of having very strong talent at the executive level and are examining how best we can use them. Our priority is to make sure whatever decision and changes we decide to make improves the content team. The furthest thing from our minds is replacing that role. We are about ensuring the right structure and the right people are in place. We are close to making a set of announcements with regard to that.

We have recently brought in some wonderful talent in Laura Bouchet and also Dan Bradley. They are adding further strength to the team.

When we finalise our content structures we will then know what may be required to lead that team. I think the skill sets needed to lead the team will be very different to the skillsets we’ve had in the past.

Is speculation about who might replace Guy Dobson premature?

If anyone is speculating and it’s not me it is very immature!

What is the timeline for PodcastOne profitability?

We have built what is now the preeminent premium podcast platform in Australia.

A year ago were had 35 authors and 50m downloads, now we have 60 authors and close to 100m downloads. We have educated the market well with what is an appealing product for listeners and investors via agencies and advertisers.

The market will continue to accelerate and we will tell more stories with more experts and authors over the next year or two.

It has become an investable media and it certainly wasn’t as recently as 12 months ago. Advertisers are recognising it is a very targetable media and a premium media that should be part of the their normal repertoire.

We said in the first two to three years we wanted to break even. We are now 18 months in and we would like to think we would reach profitability within that timeframe.

Mediaweek podcasts are available on the PodcastOne platform.

—

Top Photo: Grant Blackley (left) and Guy Dobson (right) at PodcastOne launch 18 months ago

Bouchet’s departure in early November from KIIS 1065 was the first part of a major Sydney breakfast show shakeup at ARN in Sydney. The second of two Bouchet bombshells to rock Sydney radio was dropped when his wife Laura revealed just after the start of radio ratings this year she too was quitting as Jonesy and Amanda’s EP for a role at SCA’s Triple M.

After Kyle revealed on air last week he had a new manager, Bruno Bouchet told Mediaweek: “Over the past 10 years, Kyle and I have worked together on radio, TV and on his book – stepping into the role of managing director of King Kyle seems like the next logical step in our working relationship.

“The company’s expanding quickly into a variety of different sectors (alcohol and freight just to name a few) and I’m pumped to be at the helm of King Kyle’s next chapter.”

The move means Bruno returns to be involved with ARN much sooner than any of the executives might have expected. It also means a change to the boardroom table when it comes time for contract talks for the highest paid entertainers in Australia. Bruno will now have a seat at that table alongside former Austereo managing director Brad March who now manages Jackie Henderson who is part of his Marchmedia talent stable.

Bruno told Mediaweek about the change of role: “Having a background in business was definitely one of the reasons Kyle brought me on board, but – honestly – I think he liked the idea of having a cranky Frenchman with a gorgeous dad bod join his company.

“It was only in December that I left the executive producer gig of the radio show, I think that – coming back so soon – means I have to hand back my farewell present … so if anyone wants a diamante-encrusted pimp cup with the initials ‘BB’ engraved on it – feel free to hit up ARN management for it.”

About the management change within King Kyle, Sandilands said:

“Normally with former staff I have the same regard for them as used toilet paper, but in Bruno’s case he was too good to throw away. With Bruno running things for me in Australia, Andrew Hawkins will continue to represent my interests on the H2coco board and run the music company in Los Angeles. Tegan Kynaston will continue her incredible job as director of communications. With such a strong team, I’ll now be able to spend more time concentrating on watching Foxtel.”

—

Top Photo: Bruno Bouchet with Kyle Sandilands

Sitting within the MCN business, the new team will be focused on premium revenue opportunities and creating effective integrated campaigns for Australian advertisers.

In the last six months MCN has undergone a major transformation across the business, evolving the sales structure and brand proposition to a Foxtel first model. The new integrated partnerships team supercharges the strategy by amplifying the network’s assets to provide brands with a true Foxtel centric integration offering. It also ensures MCN continues to provide speed and agility on behalf of its agency and client partners.

The new, hybrid team, will be led by Martin Medcraf in the newly created role of Foxtel sales and brand partnerships director, and will incorporate three different functions:

• Foxtel Brand Sales, working side by side with MCN’s integrated TV and Digital salesforce, this function includes managing the sales teams at Foxtel and Fox Sports.
• FNA Brand Partnerships, responsible for developing and delivering premium partnership opportunities for FNA owned channels and websites, including content creation.
• Sport Brand Partnerships, responsible for developing and delivering premium partnership opportunities for Fox Sports channels and websites.

Each function will be led by heads of departments from within the MCN and Foxtel businesses. Medcraf, who has been national sports sales director for MCN for over 10 years, will continue to report to MCN chief executive Mark Frain.

Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany said: “Our new integrated partnership model is the latest example of how we continue to lead in the ad sales space and this role allows us to work smarter by encouraging even greater collaboration and co-ordination across our ad sales teams. It’s great to see an industry expert of Martin’s calibre take the helm of this exciting new program that will provide value to our advertising partners, while opening up new opportunities to drive commercial growth for Foxtel.”

MCN CEO Mark Frain said: “Over the last six months we have re-focused the business on two key traits that have always defined us: innovation and integration. This new team is the next step in this evolution and creates something truly unique in the market. By closely aligning sales and partnerships, we are creating new opportunities for advertisers to harness the power of the Foxtel platform. This new sales and partnerships model allows us to continue to lead the market by creating solutions that push the boundaries of what integrated campaigns can do for brands.”

Medcraf said: “I couldn’t be more honoured to lead the new combined Foxtel sales and brand partnerships team and begin building new, high value opportunities for the Foxtel business. This more effective structure means we can better share ideas, market experience and knowledge to develop stronger advertising solutions for our partners. With the ever-changing media landscape, it’s important we remain agile and responsive to our clients’ needs, so this team will be focused on ensuring a deep understanding of client, agency and Foxtel requirements that always deliver real business results.”

With the availability of Nova on Alexa, listeners will be able to interact with a live radio broadcast via voice commands. Through Alexa, they will be able to ask Nova “Who sings this song?”, “What song is this?” and “What show am I listening to?” or tell Nova that they love a song or want to change the station.

Users will also be able to switch between live broadcast radio and on-demand (catch-up) audio, allowing them to browse through the network’s library of top-rated shows, and even tell Nova which shows they like or dislike.

Fayad Tohme, Nova Entertainment’s chief digital officer

Nova Entertainment said its vision is to transform the way people listen to radio, by delivering an interactive, connected and personalised experience that provides an easy way for the audience to listen to what they want, when they want.

In the coming months, Nova Entertainment is promising to release new capabilities to further enhance the user’s experience and introduce unique advertising propositions for clients.

With Google’s audio platform, Home, also part of their digital voice plans, Nova views interactive radio as a new way to engage with its audience, while providing a unique advertising platform for clients.

Fayad Tohme, Nova Entertainment’s chief digital officer said, “Smart speakers, voice UX and constantly-improving AI voice services are becoming increasingly important for audio publishers. The mass adoption of voice-enabled devices and conversational experiences is accelerating – with audio content consumption a key driver to its growth. Nova Entertainment’s ambition is to become the Australian market leader in conversational experiences.”

The relationship with Alexa is another addition to Nova Entertainment’s digital portfolio which includes GOAT, the mobile-only, millennial platform, as well as the company’s partnership with podcast platform Acast.

On TV in 2018 there was competition from the Winter Olympics and the three nights drew an average of 122,000 metro with an extra 75,000 national on Fox Footy.

The “one night only” approach this year seems to have paid off with 326,000 watching Seven and 7mate on Friday night with an extra 99,000 in regional markets pushing the FTA total to 425,000.

There was an extra 87,000 watching across the night on Fox Footy.

Some have called the Friday night crowd disappointing – 24,000 compared to 22,500 at the Melbourne event last year. The combined audience across the three days last year was 43,000.

—

SuperRugby Saturday: 4K Ultra HD debuts #1 on Foxtel

Rugby Union in 4K Ultra HD was available for Foxtel customers for the first time ever on Saturday night with the Brumbies v Waratahs Super W match and then the Brumbies v Chiefs SuperRugby matches live and exclusive on Fox Sports from 5pm.

The Brumbies v Chiefs match was the most-watched program on the Foxtel platform Saturday with 77,000 watching. SuperRugby games were three of the four most-watched programs on Saturday with Sunwolves v Waratahs #2 with 65,000 and Crusaders v Hurricanes on 53,000 at #4.

Head of Fox Sports, Peter Campbell, said last week: “After broadcasting Bathurst and cricket in 4K Ultra HD across the summer I am very pleased Super Rugby is the first of our winter codes to be broadcast in 4K Ultra HD. Watching rugby in a resolution four times higher than HD adds value for our Foxtel subscribers who have the 4K channel included in the price of our HD offering within the sports package.

“Making the Brumbies vs Waratahs Super W match available in 4K Ultra HD further marks the steady the rise of the women’s competition and its place within the code as well as your home of Rugby in Australia on Fox Sports.”

Working on commentary for Fox Sports across the matches on Saturday were George Gregan, Greg Clark, Drew Mitchell, Tim Horan, Rod Kafer, Phil Kearns, Stephen Hoiles, Greg Martin, Sean Maloney, Nick McArdle, Andrew Swain, Lou Ransome and Natalie Yoannidis.

—

Golf TV launches in Australia with exclusive live WGC coverage

• Live World Golf Championships coverage to be available exclusively on GOLFTV in Australia

Coverage of this week’s World Golf Championships Mexico Championship was exclusive to GOLFTV.

Discovery’s live and on-demand video streaming service launched in January this year.

The new live and on-demand video streaming service is the exclusive home of live World Golf Championships (WGC) coverage for Australian golf fans.

Coverage of the WGC Mexico Championship started this weekend on GOLFTV and the channel is the only place to watch all four WGC events live in Australia this year.

A GOLFTV Live Pass gives golf fans access to all live coverage, plus additional on-demand content, on mobile, tablet and computer devices via GOLF.TV and the GOLFTV app. Fans can subscribe at GOLF.TV and choose between two packages – one at $10 monthly or a premium package costing $20.

Following its launch at the beginning of the year, GOLFTV will broadcast more than 2,000 hours of live golf action each year – including The Players Championship, the FedExCup Playoffs, PGA Tour, Web.com Tour, PGA Tourampions and the Presidents Cup in Melbourne – as well as a wide range of premium content on-demand.

Rebecca Kent (pictured), general manager Australia, New Zealand & Pacific Islands, Discovery, said: “We’re excited to be offering Australians exclusive, live coverage of premium PGA Tour events, including the WGC-Mexico Championship. With four Aussies competing this week, along with some of the biggest names in the sport, fans will be able to follow the action closely on GOLFTV. In addition to the four WCG events which are exclusive to the service in Australia, GOLFTV subscribers will be able to enjoy extensive coverage of more than 70 events throughout the year, along with unique content and 360 degree coverage of the sport.”

The remaining WGC events this year are the WGC-Dell Match Play (March 27-31), WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational (July 25-28) and WGC-HSBC Championships (October 31-November 3).

Singles

Ariana Grande and her hit single 7 Rings remain at #1 for a fifth week which means that as summer ends only two songs have topped the chart so far in 2019 – Sunflower from Post Malone & Swae Lee and then 7 Rings. Sunflower continues to hover near the top of the chart – after 18 weeks it is still at #3. Ariana again holds the top two spots with Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored holding again at #2.

Khalid was the only new arrival in the top 10 this week with Talk lifting from #24 to #9 in its second week on the chart.

Three new tunes made it into the top 50 on debut:

#22 Please Me from Cardi B and Bruno Mars is their second pairing after Finesse 12 months ago.
#30 11 Minutes from Yungblud and Halsey featuring Travis Barker. Halsey has called herself a “cougar” for reaching out to the young UK artist three years her junior.
#39 365 from Zedd and Katy Perry is a collaboration from the US singer and European producer. Neither have had an album since 2017 and Zedd supported Perry on her 2018 Australian dates.

Albums

With a second week at #1 with Thank U, Next, Ariana Grande becomes the first artist not appearing on a soundtrack to hold down consecutive weeks on top since Eminem with Kamikaze was #1 for four consecutive weeks last September.

New music started to flow more liberally on the chart this week with seven new artists debuting inside the top 50, three of them hitting the top 10 in their first week:

#4 The Cat Empire with Stolen Diamonds. Seventh album from the Melbourne-based party band was recorded in their home town. As we publish this the band is making a longish trip from a Perth gig to Brooklyn where they start their North America East Coast dates on Thursday.
#7 Florida Georgia Line with Can’t Say It Ain’t Country. The fourth album from the country duo raced to #1 on the US country chart after an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show last week.
#9 Avril Lavigne with Head Above Water. The comeback sixth studio album has met with mixed reviews at best, but it still managed a top 10 debut here.
#11 Methyl Ethel with Triage. The Perth rockers signed to 4AD are also embarking on a marathon global trek to support their third album. They have a Launceston gig on March 10 then do dates in London and Los Angeles in the following nine days.
#32 Millencolin with SOS. The ninth album from the Swedish rockers who first strummed a guitar in anger back in 1992. They start an Australian tour in Fremantle next Saturday.
#34 Drake with So Far Gone. The album release of a mixtape Drake initially distributed for free in 2009. Drake’s previous two studio albums made it to #1 on the ARIA album chart while the previous three mixtape releases were all top five.
#45 Dear Seattle with Don’t Let Go. The debut album from the Sydney rock band, but fans must wait until mid-May for the start of their national tour.

One title conspicuous by its absence, however, is Crackdown 3, which – like those other titles – also launched on February 15. Granted, Crackdown 3 is free for anyone with an Xbox Game Pass subscription, and it’s also only available on Windows and Xbox One, whereas the other three titles are also on the industry-leading PlayStation 4 console, but even so, it’s pretty incredible that it didn’t even crack the top 10, and was in fact outsold by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe; a game that was originally released in April 2017.

Crackdown 3 did manage to come in at number four (behind Far Cry New Dawn, Metro: Exodus and Jump Force) on the Xbox One chart, but that then simply indicates a low volume of retail sales on that platform as a whole. It must be a bitter disappointment for Microsoft given the lofty ambitions the company had early on in the development process for Crackdown 3. The promise was that cloud computing would power unrivalled real-time destruction in the game, but ultimate that amounted to nothing of consequence in a project that saw multiple developers and multiple delays. The end result proved to be as underwhelming as the sales.

Sunday: Week 9 2019

By James Manning

FTA TV news/current affairs

• Seven News 892,000
• Nine News 965,000
• ABC News 661,000
• The Sunday Project 199,000/302,000
• Insiders 274,000
• 10 News First 262,000
• Offsiders 150,000
• SBS World News 137,000

Breakfast TV

• Sunrise 255,000
• Today 203,000

Seven

The gap between first and second widened last night, although Seven was able to marginally lift its Sunday primary share from 18.4% to 18.8%. With Nine able to claim its best start in a decade, Seven is recording its lowest shares in Q1 for close to a decade.

My Kitchen Rules did 751,000, which was well down on last Sunday’s 902,000. It was a disappointing result for beauty queens Veronica and Piper who botched their main course with Pete and Manu scoring them just 4 out of a possible 20.

Sunday Night then did 574,000 after 400,000 a week ago. The Seven show was covering Michael Jackson as was 60 Minutes.

Nine

A colossal 30% primary share wasn’t a huge deal in the past but it is a rarity these days as 20 separate channels jostle for OzTAM share on the FTA platform. Driving the Nine result of course was Married At First Sight, which did well after coverage was splashed across News Corp Sunday newspapers. The more Nine try to hose down the scandal elements (Are they? Really?) the more the public wants.

The audience of 1.659m last night pushes the episode into the ratings books. The best last year were the series final of MAFS on 1.90m while the biggest regular entertainment episode on any channel last year was the final dinner party on MAFS, which did 1.76m. The next best regular episode last year (not a series final) was the launch of The Block on 1.25m. (All those 2018 numbers are consolidated 28.)

After MAFS, 60 Minutes managed to creep just over the 1m mark as Michael Jackson’s latest accuser made allegations to reporter Liam Bartlett about what went on inside the Neverland Ranch.

10

The channel had its lowest Sunday primary share of the year with 9.0% (discounting Sunday of Week 1 which was technically the last Sunday of December).

The broadcaster has bet big on new 7.30pm franchises this year and so far the score before last night was 1 from 2. Meaning Dancing with the Stars was a keeper and Changing Rooms was not.

It might to too early to put the new Sunday Night Takeaway in the second category, but it was not a great launch result with 383,000. However going up against a show as hot as MAFS is not easy for anyone. The format screams Saturday Night to some, although the would be a massive roll of the dice given commercials broadcasters reluctance to program anything except sport and movies on the quietest TV night of the week.

The Project wasn’t able to provide much of a lead-in audience with 302,000.

Sunday Night Takeaway ran well over the advertised finishing time, which means the corrected number could be even lower.

The audience for NCIS in the data today is 201,000.

Network 10’s chief content officer Beverley McGarvey said this morning:

“Chris & Julia’s Sunday Night Takeaway was a big swing for 10 last night and while we’re disappointed it didn’t have a bigger impact, we’re happy to have offered fresh, family-friendly entertainment as an alternative on a Sunday evening. Chris and Julia pulled off a mammoth task and we’re so proud with how seamlessly they pulled the show together, mere moments after arriving back from Africa.

“The great thing about a live show is that we can listen to the feedback and tweak the show making it snappier as it builds over the coming weeks.

“We can now promote all of last night’s popular segments retrospectively and show a broader audience that next week you too could Win the Ads or become part of the Happiest Minute on television!”

ABC

The final of the three-part Magical Land Of Oz looked at human impact on wildlife with 538,000 watching after the first two episodes were also both over 500,000.

The final episode of The Cry then did 522,000, which is just below the launch episode on 574,000.

The final of Mrs Wilson then did 359,000 after 364,000 last week.

SBS

Part two of a repeat screening of Secrets Of The Pyramids attracted the biggest audience with 154,000 after 7.30pm.

A doco on the bombing of PanAm flight 103 released 30 years after the tragedy, Lockerbie: The Unheard Voices, did 132,000.