By James Manning
You can find Mediaweek’s full results and analysis of every metro commercial radio station here.
Here are some of the other highlights from this week:
Nova claimed to be Australia’s #1 metro network in share 8.9% and cume 3,512,000 – 401,500 listeners ahead of its nearest competitor.
Nova’s Kate, Tim & Marty was named the #1 national drive show (4-6pm) in share 11.1% and cume 1,543,700 for 19th consecutive survey.
Nova’s Smallzy’s Surgery celebrated 46 consecutive wins as the #1 national nights show in share 9.6% and cume 811,000.
SCA is claiming the biggest national radio audience via its metro and regional reach.
“The SCA audio stack talks to 5,228,000 people every week – the biggest national audience,” said the broadcaster after the release of the survey results.
SCA gets to the 5m+ figure with aggregated FM and digital radio reach:
4,500,000 listen to SCA FM network
323,000 listen to both SCA FM and digital
348,000 listen only to SCA digital network
ARN claimed a network share increase to 16.2%. “While this makes ARN the #2 national network, we’re only 0.1% away from the #1 position,” said national content director Duncan Campbell.
ARN’s hot spots
Highlight across the markets for ARN was the return of the FM breakfast duopoly in Sydney with K&J and J&A #1 and #2 respectively.
Jonesy and Amanda recovered along with the station. “The cume for the station remains very solid and the WSFM is recovering from having taken a little bit of a hit last book. You can never write off such a strong station with a heritage breakfast show,” Campbell told Mediaweek.
Both the top two Melbourne FM drive shows are music only with single announcers – Gavin Miller at Gold is #2 with Byron Webb at smoothfm now #2.
Will and Woody are now #2 FM drive in Sydney: “They have done very well in Sydney this book.”
Both ARN stations in Melbourne were up. Campbell: “Christian O’Connell has moved ahead of Eddie McGuire which is notable halfway through the football season. Gold is just behind smoothfm and it has a cume above 1m again.
“KIIS 101.1 had its best station cume in five years. We have done some heavy marketing and cume is up 100,000 overall and 60,000 in breakfast. Cume precedes share and we now have to convert the cume. KIIS has also done well across the workday. In our plan to get breakfast share up we have had a really good positive sign in this survey.”
Brisbane – some of AM share was off the Richter radio scale – 4BC with 7.6% (9.4% in breakfast) and 4KQ with 9.3 (9.1% in breakfast).
Of ARN’s FM performance, Campbell said: “We are very happy in Brisbane because we have done a lot of work on 97.3. For us to be more competitive is great news. There are just 1.5 share points between first and fourth. There is obviously more to do though.”
Like KIIS, 96FM is a work in progress, and Campbell pointed to a modest growth in cume to 365,000. “The goal is to get cume above 400,000 and we are working closely with Gary Roberts.”
New MD Gary Roberts is back in town this week and he and the ARN will soon start analysing recent market research.
Triple M still kicking weekend footy goals
Triple M reported it is the place to be for advertisers wanting football fans. In Sydney 248,000 of people aged 10+ tune into the Triple M NRL broadcast in Sydney each week.
Of those people, 243,000 (98%) are in Triple M’s target demographic of people aged under 70 years of age. Of those people under 70, Triple M NRL is the #1 broadcast in Sydney.
Triple M NRL is also the #1 broadcast in the target demographic of people aged 25-54, reaching 157,000 each week.
Some 885,000 people aged 10+ tune into Triple M NRL and AFL Footy across metro markets each week. (Combined metro figure – excludes Perth because of timeslots).
This is the highest combined Triple M Footy reach since Survey 5, 2015.
Mean while in Melbourne, SCA said Triple M Footy wins:
#1 broadcast for all aged people 10+ in Melbourne with 345,000 tuning in each week
#1 overall in share for people 10+ (9.4%)
#1 broadcast in the key demographic of people aged 25-54, reaching 198,000 each week
When using all people data, 3AW claims top spot in the football audience stakes with a combined Friday, Saturday and Sunday football share of 9.2%.
Today was the last morning on air at SCA’s Brisbane home at North Quay.
The Hit 105 and Triple M breakfast shows recalled the good times at what will now be their old home.
SCA is moving to Level 4, The Barracks on Petrie Terrace after securing a 10-year lease with options last year.
SCA has been at North Quay since September 2000. The stations moved there from Bowen Hills.
Earlier this year Triple M Brisbane held an auction of rockstar memorabilia ahead of the move.
Former Brisbane SCA breakfast producer Brenden Wood, now with Seven News, this morning remembered the first day at North Quay:
“Sally Quayle, then Ian Skippen were the first voices on air for B105 from the new North Quay studio at 5:30am.
“Luke Bradnam was the first traffic reporter. At about 7:10am, the first guest was Richard Branson on the air via phone.”
It was then the new studios had their first major tech challenge – getting the phone call to air!
Kay will be responsible for managing the Nova 100 brand and promotions team to create and deliver promotional solutions for Nova Entertainment’s clients and stations, secure and manage key partnerships, and deliver on the company strategy while ensuring a winning culture of innovation, idea generation and execution across Nova Entertainment’s brands.
Polly Goodchild, Nova Entertainment’s brand and promotions director said, “We are extremely pleased to appoint Andy Kay to the role of Nova 100 brand and promotions manager. Andy is a strong leader and his passion for radio and Melbourne make him the perfect culture fit for Nova Entertainment. With seven years’ experience in radio promotions, partnerships and client implementation, he’s the perfect addition to the local brand and promotion’s team. We’re really looking forward to him joining the company and hitting the ground running.”
With over 10 years’ radio and management experience, most recently Kay was senior national network brand activations specialist for ARN (KIIS/Pure Gold Networks), responsible for creating national promotional campaigns for some of Australia and the world’s biggest brands and organisations.
After four years as a recruitment manager for Sensis, Kay joined ARN in March 2012. Over the next seven years he held various roles including campaign and event specialist for Mix FM’s breakfast show, national campaign and event manager for ARN’s national drive show and in February 2016 was promoted to his most recent role as senior national network brand activations specialist.
Andy Kay said, “I’m thrilled to be joining Nova Entertainment in Melbourne and am especially excited about the new partnerships and experiences that the brand and promotions team will bring to life. Working in the radio industry is a dream career for me and joining Nova Entertainment is a new and exciting chapter in my life. It’ll also be fantastic to reunite with the gorgeous Chrissie Swan after all these years!”
Kay will commence in the role on 15 July, reporting directly to Polly Goodchild.
Foxtel and MCN showed off their new inner-city venue Foxtel On Oxford last night.
In the second-only event at the completely refurbished Academy Cinema on Oxford Street in Paddington invited guests saw the Australian premiere of Foxtel’s second season of HBO’s Big Little Lies.
While there was no Nicole Kidman to walk the red carpet and pose on the media wall – she sent a video explaining she was working in New York City this week – Kidman family connections were out in force.
Nicole’s mother Janelle Kidman attended with her granddaughter (and Nicole’s niece) Lucia Hawley. Accompanying them was longtime Kidman publicist Wendy Day with columnist husband Mark and former Nicole Kidman exec assistant Gemma Fordham (now running SCA’s Hit Network) was part of the entourage.
The event was sponsored by Mamamia with chief revenue and operations exec Tony Prentice hosting clients and partners.
Foxtel executive director of television Brian Walsh introduced the first episode of the second season and reminded guests it was just part of a big line-up of premium drama from Foxtel and HBO.
Walsh also took the opportunity to screen to guests an extended trailer of Foxtel’s new Australian drama Lambs Of God with Ann Dowd, Essie Davis and Jessica Barden. That series, launching Sunday July 21, is made for Foxtel by Lingo Pictures and Endemol Shine.
—
Top photo: Foxtel’s Brian Walsh
Photos: Belinda Rowland
Isentia customers across Asia Pacific now have access to quick, visual social and media coverage data, which will help them spot key themes or flag warning signs. The data and charts are customisable, so users can focus on the metrics appropriate for their campaign, including share of voice and automated sentiment.
Analytics from the new dashboard are easily converted into reports that can be downloaded or shared via a link for distribution within the business. In addition, all charts can incorporate 12 months of data, easily conveying quarter-by-quarter or month-by-month changes.
Isentia chief product officer Jen Marshall said: “Communications and marketing professionals are under incredible pressure to demonstrate greater value around the work they do. The new Mediaportal analytics dashboard makes it easier for them to find the right insights and make timely decisions, as well as providing updates to key stakeholders. Just as importantly, our users need the right tools to analyse and interpret their success.
“We also wanted the results to be more compelling. Users can now create branded reports, bringing together visuals from campaigns and translating the value of their work to the C-Suite in minutes.”
Mediaportal Analytics is one of the first key product changes following a restructure of the marketing, client experience and product team, which was part of the company’s transformation under the leadership of its new CEO, Ed Harrison.
Commenting on this new dashboard, Harrison said: “The Isentia product development team is now focused on a number of significant projects that are critical to the ongoing execution of our strategy to deliver market-centric innovation that scales across Asia Pacific. Part of that is strengthening our agile development capability to ensure we deliver products and services quickly and effectively to our customers on a single technology platform.
“The media landscape continues to evolve, and we know our corporate and government clients rely on Isentia’s innovation to help them be ahead of the curve and armed with the intelligence and insights they need to be effective in their organisations.”
By Andrew Mercado
When Big Little Lies finished, director Jean-Marc Vallee said, “There’s no reason to make a season two.” Is the reason now Meryl Streep because it’s back (Monday on FoxShowcase) and struggling to recreate the story hook and dreamlike mood from the first one.
Writer David E. Kelley must know what he’s doing, but there’s a lot of competition out there now, what with Wentworth, Gentlemen Jack, MotherFatherSon, Fosse/Verdon, Chernobyl (all on Foxtel), Perpetual Grace, Catch 22 (Stan), Fleabag (Amazon Prime), Taboo with Harley Breen (Thursday on Ten), and Neighbours (Peach) promising to solve the 16 year mystery of Dee (Madeleine West).
You should also drop everything for When They See Us (Netflix). This true story about the Central Park Five, from executive producers Oprah Winfrey and Robert De Niro, and exquisitely directed by Ava DuVarney, will leave you outraged and heartbroken as five innocent black kids get tricked into confessing to the brutal rape of a white woman in 1989.
At the head of this racist deception is District Attorney Linda Fairstein (Felicity Huffman) who is portrayed as being cold and heartless. It is a chilling performance from Huffman who has just pled guilty in her own real life courtroom drama. Fairstein, however, is not so generous and refuses to this day to admit to any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, pro-life groups are urging people to cancel their Netflix subscription because the company has vowed to fight against Georgia’s new anti-abortion laws, and also threatening to pull production from the US state along with Disney. What next, a religious boycott of …Disney???
Two decades ago, these same Americans were protesting about Tales Of The City for showing gays on TV. Now Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City (today on Netflix) is back, with Olympia Dukakis and Laura Linney reprising their beloved roles. The last time Tales was on TV, Toadie was driving Dee off a cliff into the ocean. Since then, even Ramsay Street now has gays and Armistead Maupin has continued to write new novels about 28 Barbary Lane.
In other words, Netflix didn’t have to start from scratch with scripts for this new series. If only Aussie author Lianne Moriarty had been given more time to write another Big Little Lies. And given she loves a beach setting, maybe she could also resolve the mystery of Dee.
By James Manning
• Seven News 1,020,000/964,000
• Nine News 911,000/894,000
• A Current Affair 727,000
• ABC News 662,000
• 7.30 519,000
• The Project 279,000/458,000
• 10 News First 405,000
• The Drum 212,000
• SBS World News 122,000
• Sunrise 262,000
• Today 222,000
Home And Away ended its week on 597,000, down on its stronger figures earlier in the week.
The Front Bar was key to Seven’s primary channel win. It’s all about Melbourne and AFL markets or watching live on 7Plus in states that don’t get it early. Sydney got it well after midnight last night. The metro audience was 440,000 with 263,000 in Melbourne. Two brilliant guests on the show last night – the legendary Neale Daniher as he continues his fight against MND with Big Freeze 5 on Monday plus a former coaching colleague of his Chris Fagan.
Britain’s Got Talent was a contributor too with 421,000.
A Current Affair returned after a night off with 727,000.
No Thursday NRL this week so RBT (516,000) and Paramedics (396,000) screened around the network.
Nine’s network share won the night thanks to 9Gem on 10.3% as 356,000 watched Australia at Trent Bridge as they piled on the runs against West Indies after a disastrous start.
Western Australia’s Joe Ahern was the eleventh person eliminated from MasterChef, which means we are almost at the halfway mark of the series. The episode did 564,000 after 633,000 last week. The show has been up against rugby league and cricket on successive nights.
The Project did 458,000 after 7pm as Angela Bishop had her exclusive with Nicole Kidman plus Laura Dern and Reese Witherspoon from Big Little Lies.
A Sydney family wanting to relocate to Launceston featured on Escape From The City with 408,000.
Press then did 143,000.
The return of The Handmaid’s Tale did 262,000 at SBS with a double episode debut.
Earlier in the night Walking Britain’s Lost Railways did 195,000.
THURSDAY METRO | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven | Nine | 10 | SBS | |||||
ABC | 9.6% | 7 | 19.5% | 9 | 16.8% | 10 | 11.0% | SBS One | 6.3% |
ABC KIDS/ ABC COMEDY | 2.7% | 7TWO | 3.8% | GO! | 2.3% | 10 Bold | 4.1% | VICELAND | 1.0% |
ABC ME | 0.7% | 7mate | 3.3% | GEM | 10.3% | 10 Peach | 1.8% | Food Net | 0.8% |
ABC NEWS | 1.3% | 7flix | 2.1% | 9Life | 1.6% | NITV | 0.2% | ||
7Food | 1.0% | ||||||||
TOTAL | 14.3% | 29.5% | 30.9% | 17.0% | 8.3% |
THURSDAY REGIONAL | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven Affiliates | Nine Affiliates | 10 Affiliates | SBS | |||||
ABC | 9.5% | 7 | 19.5% | 9 | 15.3% | WIN | 8.3% | SBS One | 5.2% |
ABC KIDS/ ABC COMEDY | 3.2% | 7TWO | 6.2% | GO! | 3.3% | WIN Bold | 4.8% | VICELAND | 0.9% |
ABC ME | 1.0% | 7mate | 3.9% | GEM | 8.7% | WIN Peach | 2.0% | Food Net | 1.0% |
ABC NEWS | 1.1% | 7flix (Excl. Tas/WA) | 2.4% | 9Life | 1.5% | Sky News on WIN | 1.3% | NITV | 0.1% |
7food (QLD only) | 1.0% | ||||||||
TOTAL | 14.8% | 32.9% | 28.8% | 16.3% | 7.2% |
THURSDAY METRO ALL TV | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FTA | STV | ||||||||
83.4% | 16.6% |
16-39 Top Five
18-49 Top Five
25-54
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
Quartered in a room with ABC lawyers and IT personnel, police categorically searched all files that might be related to a series of 2017 stories known as The Afghan Files.
They went from the specific search terms such as journalists “Dan Oakes” and “Sam Clark”, to the broad – searching for the word “secret” and “Department of Defence”.
At the end of more than eight hours of the police accessing and viewing thousands of files under the watch of the ABC’s lawyers, the AFP downloaded about a hundred files on two USBs and sealed them into a special evidence bag.
The Australian Federal Police said there was no connection between the raid on Annika Smethurst’s home on Tuesday and the ABC in Sydney on Wednesday. But both search warrants relate to separate stories and allegations of publishing classified material, under the Crimes Act 1914.
The ABC’s lawyers will now begin a two-week period of review of the sealed documents handed to police. In this time they can claim legal professional privilege over some of the documents or argue about the terms of the search warrant in court.
AFP Acting Commissioner Neil Gaughan insisted officers undertook the raids of their own volition, and that they had not been initiated by the Federal Government.
“I reject the claim we are trying to intimidate journalists,” he said.
“The AFP is a strong supporter of press freedom.”
Commissioner Gaughan refused to rule out charges being laid, including against journalists.
Buttrose told The Australian yesterday she spoke to Fletcher after the Australian Federal Police raid of ABC headquarters in Sydney on Wednesday, which came less than a day after the AFP raided the Canberra home of senior News Corp Australia press gallery reporter Annika Smethurst.
Buttrose, who has not previously spoken publicly about the raid, said ABC board directors were meeting in Brisbane when the raid took place, and were aware of the development.
She declined to comment on whether the board was considering legal action, saying the matter was with the ABC’s lawyers.
Michael Miller, the executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, said: “The issue is not just these recent raids but the growing number of laws with the power to put journalists in jail.
“It is a danger to our democracy when professional news reporting is at risk of being criminalised.”
Darren Wick, the director of news and current affairs at Nine News, said the network would have “serious concerns” about any move to prosecute.
“An independent and free media is a vital element of a functioning democracy and in light of today’s comments we would encourage the AFP to move quickly to clarify the cases they are working on and what, in their view, necessitated the extraordinary raids taken this week,” Wick said.
James Chessell, the executive editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age which are owned by Nine, on Thursday called for a “sober discussion” about the cumulative impact of the Crimes Act, Espionage and Foreign Interference Bill, and defamation laws on public interest journalism.
“Laws that restrict or intimidate legitimate whistleblowers are deeply worrying,” he said.
In an interview from his London hotel on Thursday, I put to Morrison that Australians were anxious about these confronting raids. Not just media companies. Not just journalists. Everyday Australians who know what it means for police to rifle through journalists’ possessions. Everyday Australians who know what message it sends for these police to have the power to delete files.
Morrison had it wrong from the moment he first learnt of the raids in the middle of a whirlwind of long-haul travel.
His first public response came after a business lunch attended by Morrison in his first hours in London when I and a group of journalists peppered him with a series of questions about the raid.
Morrison came up short, refusing to condemn the raids nine times and tried to have a bob each way on freedom of the press.
He said to me on Thursday was that he was “open minded” about the next course of action and he understood why journalists and media companies are concerned.
This is not enough.
Morrison is playing the steady bat he holds dear on the wrong issue here.
He has misread the play and misread his return.
The queen of content is Belinda Box played by Banas, mum to a highly dysfunctional blended family that, like most families today, is struggling to combine their online and everyday lives in the suburbs. She’s the mumpreneur striving to have it all for her family – if having it all involves blogs, selfies and a good dose of Beyoncé.
Belinda loves her family, but also craves the love of the growing fan base (97 subscribers!) who follow her blog adventures as a modern mum to a busy blended family in the digital age.
Fellows plays Belinda’s husband John, a.k.a. “Handy Andy”, an ordinary dad who prefers tinkering to Tweeting, while Anthony is her bedroom-bound son Rylan, who is so busy looking for love online that he’s oblivious when it walks through the door in real life.
Seven’s director of network programming, Angus Ross, said: “Fam Time is a fresh comedy format celebrating and skewering the family idiosyncrasies we all love to hate. Its contemporary delivery, pace and irreverent humour will be a hit with our audience.”
Completing the Box family are: Belinda’s stepdaughter Tahnee (Karina Banno: Circle of Lies, Friday on My Mind, Home and Away), who freaks out when she unwittingly discovers internet fame; adopted daughter Cherry (Chloe De Los Santos: Tidelands, Jade of Death), a sassy online gaming whiz; and Grandma Viv (Rhonda Burchmore: Kath & Kim, Love Child), a cougar and ravenous online dater better known as “Foxy Box”.
Fam Time is directed by Hayden Guppy. Executive producer and series creator is Michael Horrocks. Supervising producer is Linda Ujuk, series producer is Muffy Potter and line producer is Tiare Tomaszewski. Writers are Erica Harrison and Jack Yabsley. The comedy is a Seven Studios production for the Seven Network.
See also: Listen to Seven’s Angus Ross talk about Seven Studios in a Mediaweek Podcast.
Top Photo: Michala Banas
The three-part series from Northern Pictures looked at the Italian migrant history of the inner Melbourne suburb, with local identity Mick Gatto as a key figure, and was commissioned after the success of Nine’s Underbelly.
It was also funded $670,000 by Screen Australia in 2012 and due as the third in a Once Upon a Time documentary strand. Earlier seasons looked at the Vietnamese community of Cabramatta and the Lebanese community of Punchbowl.
In late 2013 Once Upon a Time in Punchbowl was swept up in a blaze of headlines before broadcast after one of its participants has exaggerated his story to producers about incarceration a at Long Bay, Silverwater and Goulburn jails. Eventually all footage of the man was cut and it screened in 2014. But such controversy was rare for SBS, years before it encountered Struggle Street headlines.
SBS then delayed the Carlton series across successive years, initially claiming it did not have a timeslot for the show and repeatedly promising it would air “soon.”
A five year licensing deal has been struck between George the Farmer Pty Ltd and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation giving the ABC exclusive free to air rights for the ABC’s primary and secondary channels, including simultaneous online streaming through the ABC iView digital platform, for the George the Farmer paddock to plate video clips.
The videos, produced through the creators digital agency, Hello Friday, follow George the Farmer and team around South Australia as they investigate different foods grown on the farm including wheat, potatoes and chicken meat. Each stage of production is highlighted through the use of video, animation, story, music and dance culminating in a final kitchen scene where the produce that was investigated is turned into a healthy and easily achievable meal for children to cook themselves.
George the Farmer was developed in 2015 after co-creator Simone Kain identified that there weren’t any farming characters globally telling sequential stories about life on the land to help inspire and educate her then two-year-old son, George.
“We had Postman Pat and Bob the Builder but a character educating children about how the main thing that sustains our life – food – was missing”.
She worked together with business partner, Ben Hood, to bring to life this Aussie larrikin who is supported by his talented wife, Dr Ruby Farmer, an agronomist and says that they’re driven by their desire to provide children with the same connection that they were afforded from living on farms throughout their childhood.
Top Photo: Creators of George the Farmer, Simone Kain and Ben Hood during filming
Henry Goldblatt is stepping down as EW’s editorial leader after a 17-year tenure.
The August issue will mark Entertainment Weekly’s first as a monthly and is timed to Comic Con, the largest celebration of the contribution of comics to art and culture. Featuring a perfect binding, the monthly issue is promising more insider access, humour and in-depth coverage about the entertainment world in a more deluxe product. The magazine will continue to produce special interest magazines to coincide with big entertainment industry moments.
The last issue of Entertainment Weekly in its current print form will be the July 5 issue on sale June 25.
Meredith said it will enhance its 24/7, up-to-the-minute entertainment news on its EW digital, social, video and experiential platforms, including its weeklong and monthly digital packages, digital-only feature reporting and in-depth guides for tentpole events.
It will also produce first-ever digital-only covers featuring A-list stars of a major movie franchise with the first scheduled for release in the first week of July. A full EW audio slate with podcasts and connected audio platforms, as well as a completely refreshed video slate, is planned. Also, more exclusive screenings, panels, curated events and festival partnerships, including the Toronto International Film Festival, are in the works.
Simon will join Jules Breach and Mark Schwarzer at the opening game in Paris, as well as across select shows to provide analysis of the tournament and insight into the Matildas squad. This includes the Matildas’ opening match against Italy in Valenciennes on Sunday June 9, where Optus Sport will have a massive 90-minute pre-game show from 7.30pm AEST.
Despite the devastation of injury ending her quest for a third World Cup campaign, Simon is looking forward to linking up with the Optus Sport team in France.
“Although I would have loved nothing more than to be running out in the green and gold, for my third World Cup campaign, joining the Optus Sport team to broadcast the Matildas’ journey is the next best thing.
“I’m grateful and excited for the opportunity to be able to still be part of France 2019 in a different capacity and can’t wait to be able to support the girls in every way I can.”
The Optus Sport broadcast team features current and former players as well as some of Australia’s best journalists including Heather Garriock, Amy Duggan, Cheryl Salisbury, John Aloisi and Mel McLaughlin.
“Kyah has given an incredible amount to the game across her career and scored some of the most crucial goals in the history of the Matildas,” executive producer Richard Bayliss said.
“Kyah is a good luck charm for the Matildas at World Cups, so having her there pitchside as Australia plays Italy is hopefully a good omen for their chances.
“Kyah was also a part of the Matildas training camp until her unfortunate injury, so will give great insight into how the team is shaping for the tournament.”
The first State of Origin clash between the Blues and Maroons was marred by technical difficulties for those trying to watch the game on Nine’s streaming service 9Now.
Viewers complained of buffering, poor audio and being unable to watch the main feed through 9Now and flocked to social media to describe the service as “not good enough”, while others went as far as to call the coverage “bloody disgraceful”. Nine originally told viewers the streaming issues were caused by “unprecedented demand”. However, on Thursday morning a spokesman said the issues originated with a video supplier.
“9Now had a technical issue with one of the service providers last night,” he said. “As soon as the source of the issue was identified, we worked as quickly as possible to fix the service which was in total impacted for around 30 minutes.”
Video has become the dominant source of revenue for Twitter, comprising 50% of money coming in, and the social media platform is keen to ramp-up its video strategy.
Twitter’s vice-president and global head of content partnerships, Kay Madati, said the platform was a “friend, not foe” for media companies.
“The way that we’re approaching our business and our partnerships in the space is not to compete with rights holders. I don’t want to be a linear television broadcaster,” the visiting executive told The Australian Financial Review.
Twitter has partnered with Women’s World Cup rights holder SBS. The public broadcaster will launch a live daily TV show on the social-media platform to complement games on TV. SBS and Twitter will also use the platform for highlights and interviews, and has signed up Visa, TAB and the Australian Defence Force as sponsors.