Monday March 19, 2018
Outdoor revenue potential: 'Large format, digital out-of-home platform untapped'
By James Manning
As part of a restructure unveiled in January this year, listed outdoor business QMS Media Group promoted John O’Neill from chief sales officer to QMS CEO Australia. The move was to allow QMS founder Barclay Nettlefold to focus on future growth of QMS, including international opportunities.
O’Neill has worked in outdoor for over 20 years and he started in a business called NLD, which was run by David Nettlefold, Barclay’s father. The business had a national footprint of large-format static billboards. NLD grew substantially over the years, adding shopping centres and airports to its portfolio of assets. Network Ten eventually acquired NLD (see Gardening Leave below) and O’Neill moved on.
He later started his own outdoor business called Media Puzzle. He quickly built a portfolio of attractive sites with part of the business being eventually acquired by WPP.
Brendon Cook’s then-listed outdoor business Network agreed to acquire Media Puzzle from WPP (which owned 55%) and management (which owned the other 45%). That business became known as oOh!media.
O’Neill told Mediaweek that after seven years, he and Brendon Cook “were going in different directions” and he decided to depart oOh!.
After leaving oOh!media, John O’Neill stood aside from the outdoor sector for 18 months as part of a non-compete clause before diving right back in.
—
This is an excerpt from the full article, which appears on Mediaweek Premium. Read the full article here, or subscribe to Mediaweek Premium here.
The magazine queen has left the building: Jackie Frank’s Pacific farewell
By James Manning
After the announcement only earlier this month that Jackie Frank would be departing Pacific Magazines, Frank was farewelled by friends and colleagues on Friday.
For her last day on the Seven West Media payroll, Frank arrived at the Media City Pacific HQ around midday and spent time with her teams who remembered the highlights from her 23 years with the publisher.
The marie claire team presented Jackie Frank with a marie claire wrap-around featuring the magazine’s founding editor on the cover with headlines that included:
Workplace wars: “No one’s getting my office”
Don’t Ask, Don’t Get: The slogan that defined a career
An accompanying letter from her peeps at Pac described Frank as everything from passionate publisher, TV titan, fierce fashionista to relentless networker, office screamer, public crier, amazing mentor and badass boss.
Later in the afternoon there was a more formal send-off around 4pm with all the teams assembling from the magazines that Frank was general manager of – the titles that sit within the fashion, beauty and health division.
There were quite a few tears as speakers includes marie claire’s Nicky Briger and Better Homes & Gardens’ Julia Zaetta as well as a few words too from Frank.
Jackie Frank with her memorial magazine covers on Friday
The farewell then moved down the road to Fratelli Alexandria, which has seen a procession of farewells for Pacific staff. One of the biggest previously was last year’s farewell for departing CEO Peter Zavecz.
Guests at the farewell drinks (and accompanying Fratelli pizzas) included Franks’ husband Steve Rosanove, plus Pacific colleagues Julia Zaetta, Louisa Hatfield, Nicky Briger, Mychelle Vanderburg, Melissa Gaudron, Kirsten Rowlingson and Hannah Devereux. Pacific CFO Guy Torre made it back from a Seven West Media meeting day, as did Seven West Media commercial director Bruce McWilliam.
Also attending was Seven’s Morning Show EP Sarah Stinson and very recently departed Seven crime show EP Mark Llewellyn, who rode his new electric bike to the bar from the eastern suburbs.
Frank was presented with a massive bunch of flowers and a huge card. She broke her alcohol-free diet and downed a number of Espresso Martinis, which kept the bar staff busy.
—
Top photo – Jackie Frank and friends at Fratelli [L-R]: Hannah Devereux, Julia Zaetta, Bruce McWilliam, Nicky Briger, Jackie, Sarah Stinson, Alicia Moodley and Louisa Hatfield
2017 Quill Award winners named by the Melbourne Press Club
In a tribute video, Melbourne Press Club president Adele Ferguson said “he totally transformed business journalism”.
Gottliebsen started Business Review Weekly after writing The Australian Financial Review Chanticleer column from its inception. He was also a founding investor and commentator of the pioneering site Business Spectator. He is a former Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year and inductee of the Australian Media Hall of Fame.
Will Swanton of The Australian was another major winner as he was named the 2017 Harry Gordon Australian Sports Journalist of the Year Award for his evocative sports writing.
Harry Gordon – one of the greatest sports writers, war correspondents and newspaper editors of his generation – died in early 2015 at the age of 89.
The judges praised Swanton’s knack for capturing the “emotions and atmosphere” of his subjects. “He has the ability to peel back the curtain and give us a backstage pass. He can look into a subject’s eyes and tell us what is there…” they said.
The other 2017 finalists were Greg Baum of The Age and Grantlee Kieza of The Courier-Mail.
The judges for the award were Neil Mitchell (chair), Louise Evans and Garry Linnell.
Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker of The Age won Australia’s most coveted journalism prize, The Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year, for an outstanding year breaking political scandals.
The award, for work in 2017, was presented at the Melbourne Press Club’s annual Quill Awards dinner in Melbourne on Friday March 16 2018.
The Age’s Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker with their Gold Quill
In a series of reports for The Age and ABC’s Four Corners, McKenzie and Baker unveiled growing Chinese influence over Australian politics, and spectacularly caught out Senator Sam Dastyari warning a Chinese donor that he was under surveillance, a scandal that ended his political career. McKenzie and Baker also broke the Lobster with a Mobster story in Victoria.
The pair have dominated investigative journalism in Australia for more than a decade. McKenzie is also the most decorated journalist in the 23year history of the Quill Awards, having won 24 awards including the Gold Quill twice.
The other 2017 finalists were: Adele Ferguson (The Age), Sally Sara (ABC) and Cameron Stewart (The Australian).
The judges were Barrie Cassidy, Caroline Wilson and Helen Trinca.
2017 Feature Writing Quill winner Jo Chandler
2017 Quill Award winners
2017 Quills: TV/Video Feature (Long Form)
Adele Ferguson, Klaus Toft & Sarah Danckert (ABC’s Four Corners & The Age) won the 2017 TV/Video Long Form Quill
2017 Quills: TV/Video Feature (Short Form)
Laura Turner of A Current Affair won the 2017 TV/Video Feature (Short Form) Quill
2017 Quills: TV/Video News
Alexis Daish (Nine News) won the 2017 TV/Video News Quill
2017 Quills: The Victorian Government Quill for Reporting on Disability Issues
Louise Milligan of ABC 7.30 won the 2017 Victorian Government Quill for Reporting on Disability Issues
2017 Quills: Suburban Journalism
Suzan Delibasic of the Monash Leader won the 2017 Suburban Journalism Quill
2017 Quills: The TAC Towards Zero Quill for Road Safety Reporting
Ebony Bowden won the 2017 TAC Towards Zero Quill for Road Safety Reporting
2017 Quills: The Young Journalist of the Year
Cassie Zervos of the Herald Sun is The 2017 MPC Young Journalist of the Year
2017 Quills: Breaking News Coverage
The Age Newsroom Team won the 2017 Breaking News Coverage Quill for its coverage of the Bourke Street attack.
2017 Quills: Business Feature
Damon Kitney of The Australian won the 2017 Business Feature Quill for his exclusive with James Packer
2017 Quills: Camera Work
James Paul of Seven News won the 2017 Camera Work Quill
2017 Quills: Business News
Adele Ferguson and Sarah Danckert of The Age won the 2017 Business News Quill
2017 Quills: Cartoon
Ron Tandberg of The Age won the 2017 Cartoon Quill for ‘The Big C’
2017 Quills: Feature Writing
The winner of the 2017 Feature Writing Quill is Jo Chandler
2017 Quills: Coverage of an Issue or Event
A Fairfax Media & ABC Team have won the 2017 Coverage of an Issue or Event Quill for “China’s influence – power and payments”
2017 Quills: Artwork
Jamie Brown won the 2017 Artwork Quill for work in The Sunday Age
2017 Quills: Features Photograph
David Caird won the 2017 Features Photograph Quill for “Melbourne High Life”, published in the Sunday Herald Sun
2017 Quills: The Grant Hattam Quill for Investigative Journalism
Group investigations into Chinese influence over Australian politics and a retirement village sector scandal have jointly won the 2017 Grant Hattam Quill for Investigative Journalism.
2017 Quills: Innovation in Journalism
The ABC Trace Team won the 2017 Innovation in Journalism Quill for “Trace”
2017 Quills: The Keith Dunstan Quill for Commentary
Gay Alcorn of Guardian Australia won the 2017 Keith Dunstan Quill for Commentary
2017 Quills: The Gold Quill
Fairfax Media & ABC have won the 2017 Gold Quill
The judges commented:
The courageous and tenacious work of the Fairfax Media/Four Corners team led by The Age’s Nick McKenzie revealed that the Chinese company that bought the Darwin Port had signed a secret $880,000 contract with former trade minister Andrew Robb beginning the day he quit parliament.
The team also revealed that high-profile Labor Senator Sam Dastyari had tipped off a billionaire Chinese donor that he was under surveillance by intelligence agencies – and that the senator had contradicted his party’s and his country’s policies on the South China Sea, then lied about doing so. Dastyari had no choice but to resign.
• Power and Influence, ABC’s Four Corners
• China’s Operation Australia, The Age Online
• ALP takes “illegal” tobacco donations from big Chinese cigarette importer, The Sydney Morning Herald
2017 Quills: News Photograph
Tony Gough of the Herald Sun won the 2017 News Photograph Quill for “Bourke Street massacre”
2017 Quills: News Report in Writing
Josh Gordon, Richard Willingham & Benjamin Preiss of The Age won the 2017 News Report in Writing Quill
2017 Quills: Podcasting
The ABC Trace Team won the 2017 Podcasting Quill for the series “Trace”.
2017 Quills: The RACV Transport Quill
Brendan Donohoe of Seven News won the 2017 RACV Transport Quill
2017 Quills: Radio Current Affairs
Bridget Judd of ABC Local Radio won the Radio Current Affairs Quill
2017 Quills: Radio News
3AW Programs & News won the 2017 Radio News Quill for coverage of the Bourke Street tragedy.
2017 Quills: Regional and Rural Journalism
Tyla Harrington, Andrew Mole, Ivy Wise and Luke Hemer of The Riverine Herald won the 2017 Regional and Rural Journalism Quill
2017 Quills: Sports News
Michael Warner of the Herald Sun won the 2017 Sports News Quill for “Drugs, Lies and Cover-ups”
2017 Quills: Sports Feature
Louise Milligan, Lisa McGregor & Trish Drum of ABC Four Corners won the 2017 Sports Feature Quill
2017 Quills: Sports Photograph
Mark Stewart of the Herald Sun won the 2017 Sports Photograph Quill for “Howe high can he go?”
—
Top photo: ABC’s Michael Rowland hosted the evening
Fox Sports partners with PlayersVoice for closer links to sport’s biggest stars
Fox Sports and PlayersVoice.com.au have announced a strategic partnership, as the leading athlete-generated media platform also announces the completion of its Series A capital raising.
MORE: Inside PlayersVoice.com.au with CEO Kerry McCabe
The deal with Fox Sports will include wide-reaching integrations across Fox Sports’ suite of broadcast and digital products and channels. Both companies will work together on their shared vision to further close the gap between sports news and live sport by creating and disseminating premium content for fans, sportspeople and brands across all screens and devices.
In addition to the alliance with Fox Sports and the commitment of a group of Australia’s leading sportspeople as founding shareholders, PlayersVoice has successfully attracted significant capital from returning investors, high net-worth individuals, media specialists and elite sportspeople, all buoyed by the platform’s early consumer and commercial inroads to become the premium athlete-generated media offering in Australia.
Just six months after launch, PlayersVoice has claimed it had made a major impact on the sports media landscape, featuring rich and revealing video, written and podcast content from more than 230 elite sportspeople. That has amounted to an on-platform audience of over 1.8 million users, skewing significantly younger and more female than other digital sporting properties, with an average time per story of over six minutes and over 70 million social impressions.
PlayersVoice CEO Kerry McCabe (pictured) said: “Athlete-generated media is the fastest growing category in sports media globally, with this latest round of investment serving to cement our clear market leadership position, allowing us to build upon a foundation of industry trust and content that has resonated strongly with consumers. As the daily champion of sport, Fox Sports is one of Australia’s most-loved brands and we couldn’t ask for a more aligned partner to join us at this stage in our journey. Our thanks and appreciation go out to the sportspeople, users, brands and investors who have joined the PlayersVoice movement as we deliver on our vision to enrich the soul of Australia’s great obsession – sport.”
Fox Sports chief operating officer Peter Campbell added: “Fox Sports understands Australians’ connection with sport. We know it’s deeper than just our love of the game – it’s about the joy and optimism it brings with it. PlayersVoice aims to create stronger ties between sportspeople and fans through unique storytelling, which is a great extension to the Fox Sports and Foxtel offering. Fans are hungry to learn more and hear from their favourite athletes and this is what PlayersVoice has unearthed. We look forward to building a strong partnership that will deliver unique and engaging content to sports lovers.”
“I call BS”: Radio host suggests Karl and Pete’s call could be a publicity setup
Nine did a great job on the weekend of defusing the impact of the phone call reveal by having both brothers apologise.
Helping propel the yarn in the past week has been TV news guru Peter Ford, who this morning on The Kyle and Jackie O Show called the release of details regarding the phone conversation “a horrible invasion of privacy”.
However, on another station on the KIIS network that is home to highest-rating metro FM breakfast show in Australia, Adelaide’s Mix 102.3, Mark Soderstrom told his co-host Jodie Oddy he thought it could have all been staged. “I called BS,” he said early this morning about how real the phone call actually was. When quizzed about the reasons why it probably wasn’t staged, he said, “They do it all the time.” He then asked Oddy why a high-profile TV host would ever use a speaker phone in a hire car. Soderstrom then suggested a recording of Oddy in a hire car had come into his possession. (As well as co-hosting Mix breakfast in Adelaide, Soderstrom is a Seven Adelaide sports presenter.)
The release of the phone details fill part only of a story about “Karl’s Week From Hell” in New Idea today, and there is little in the story that hadn’t already found its way into the media.
The Herald Sun’s Colin Vickery this morning called the story in New Idea “a damp squib”.
There is no love lost between the Pacific title and Karl with the breakfast TV host and Nine threatening to sue the magazine in the past over some of its stories.
ARIA Charts: The Wiggles and Jessica Mauboy make a mark on the charts
By James Manning
Singles
Come on, Drake, give somebody else a chance, please. Seven weeks at #1 means as we zoom through the third month of the year only Drake and Ed Sheeran have topped the singles chart this year with two tunes.
Not even a hint of a likely successor this week, part from Ed Sheeran!
Only two songs found their way into the top 50 this week:
#47: “We Got Love” from Jessica Mauboy was the only new release to make the 50 although hopefully Eurovision viewers might warm to it a little quicker than music fans did here. Let’s hope it gets more support this week.
#61 to #38: “Everyday” from Logic & Marshmello popped into the top 50 on second week of release.
Albums
Ed Sheeran retains top spot again and again has all three albums top 10.
The Wiggles were the chart’s biggest mover, climbing from #68 to #3 in their second week with “Nursery Rhymes 2”. Unbelievably, it’s the group’s 50th album and, perhaps even more surprising, this is their first time in the top 10 according to ARIA. Their previous best was #15 for “Nursery Rhymes 1” back in February last year.
The chart’s highest new entry is British singer Calum Scott with his first album “Only Human” landing at #5.
A second new entry in the top 10 is Logic with the mixtape “Bobby Tarantino II”. This is Logic’s best album chart performance after the studio albums “The Incredible True Story” (#43 in 2015) and “Everybody” (#25 in 2017).
Just missing the top 10 on debut were:
#11: Ian Moss with “Ian Moss”: His seventh albums puts Moss back in the charts for first time since 2009.
#12: Judas Priest with “Firepower”: The 18th album from the metal legends and the first since 2014. This is their highest album chart peak.
#14: What So Not with “Not All The Beautiful Things”: First album from the electronic music project includes contributions from Daniel Johns.
#15: Ocean Alley with “Chiaroscuro”: Sydney band’s second album
Four other chart entries lower down were among the 11 new arrivals this week:
#20: Jimi Hendrix with “Both Sides Of The Sky”: Final album in a trilogy of unreleased material.
#36: Lil Yachty with “Lil Boat 2”: US rapper’s second album.
#47: Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats with “Tearing At The Seams”
#49: Three Days Grace with “Outsider”
TV Ratings Analysis: Sunday March 18
By James Manning
Seven
Forget about the cooking between two My Kitchen Rules teams facing elimination, including cyclone Emily spinning out of control. There was a bigger storm at the table with the long-awaited clash between Sonya & Hadil and Suong. While the controversy was enough to secure 1m plus last night, the show continues to trail Married by a big margin and this morning the media coverage is all about Married.
Sunday Night then did 608,000, which also trailed its Nine competitor.
Nine
Married At First Sight with 1.44m was the place for the biggest Sunday audience again. Indications are that audiences and the army of media covering the program were more than happy with the Tracey dumping Dean storyline last night. Apart from the overnight and streaming audience records the show is setting this season, it is also pulling big consolidated numbers. Last Sunday’s episode added 111,000 viewers.
60 Minutes followed with 775,000, which gave it a good lead over Sunday Night. Stories included Ross Coulthard door-stopping New York-based Aussie editor Dylan Howard and asking him if he had been working on behalf of Harvey Weinstein.
TEN
TEN’s Sunday share dropped dramatically and shows how much broadcasters these days rely on big reality formats. It’s just seven days until Bachelor In Paradise starts and it couldn’t come fast enough.
TEN News at 5 and a new episode of NCIS shared the channel’s biggest audiences with 290,000 watching each program at different times of the night.
The Sunday episode of The Project had a tough night with a new low of 250,000 after 7pm.
It remains to be seen if previewing the cast of Bachelor In Paradise a week before launch was a good idea, but just 165,000 were watching All Star Family Feud featuring stars from The Bachelor franchise.
ABC
Kevin McCloud was in South Hertfordshire on Grand Designs UK with 613,000 watching.
The channel screened the final two episodes of Howards End with both episodes in the top 10 – one with an audience over 400,000 and the other just under.
SBS
Episode seven of Eight Days That Made Rome looked at the day the Colosseum opened its turnstiles for the first time in AD80. The show did 153,000.
Week 12 TV: Sunday
| SUNDAY METRO | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Seven | Nine | Ten | SBS | |||||
| ABC | 11.6% | 7 | 21.6% | 9 | 26.8% | TEN | 6.3% | SBS One | 5.0% |
| ABC 2 | 2.5% | 7TWO | 2.8% | GO! | 3.9% | ONE | 2.1% | VICELAND | 0.5% |
| ABC ME | 0.5% | 7mate | 5.3% | GEM | 2.8% | ELEVEN | 1.7% | Food Net | 0.7% |
| ABC News | 1.4% | 7flix | 2.1% | 9Life | 2.3% | NITV | 0.1% | ||
| TOTAL | 16.0% | 31.8% | 35.8% | 10.0% | 6.4% | ||||
| SUNDAY REGIONAL | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Seven Affiliates | Nine Affiliates | Ten Affiliates | SBS | |||||
| ABC | 11.6% | 7 | 22.3% | 9 | 23.4% | WIN | 6.7% | SBS One | 4.1% |
| ABC 2 | 2.9% | 7TWO | 3.1% | GO! | 4.4% | ONE | 2.0% | VICELAND | 0.4% |
| ABC ME | 0.8% | 7mate | 5.2% | GEM | 4.4% | ELEVEN | 1.6% | Food Net | 0.6% |
| NEWS 24 | 1.7% | 7flix | 2.2% | 9Life | 2.4% | NITV | 0.2% | ||
| TOTAL | 17.0% | 32.8% | 34.6% | 10.3% | 5.3% | ||||
| SUNDAY METRO ALL TV | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FTA | STV | ||||||||
| 85.5% | 14.5% | ||||||||
All people rankings
Friday Top 10
- Seven News Seven 836,000
- Seven News / Today Tonight Seven 782,000
- Nine News 6:30 Nine 778,000
- Nine News Nine 756,000
- ABC News ABC 603,000
- Harrow ABC 561,000
- Better Homes And Gardens Seven 553,000
- Gardening Australia ABC 497,000
- A Current Affair Nine 490,000
- The Chase Australia Seven 466,000
Saturday Top 10
- Death In Paradise ABC 745,000
- Seven News Seven 707,000
- Nine News Nine 658,000
- ABC News ABC 613,000
- David Attenborough’s-Blue Planet II Nine 497,000
- Innocent ABC 496,000
- M- The Jungle Book Seven 354,000
- Forrest Gump Nine 330,000
- Ten Eyewitness News Ten 293,000
- Weekend Today Nine 263,000
Sunday fta
- Married At First Sight Nine 1,446,000
- My Kitchen Rules Seven 1,061,000
- Seven News Seven 1,023,000
- Nine News Nine 1,007,000
- 60 Minutes Nine 775,000
- ABC News ABC 738,000
- Grand Designs ABC 613,000
- Sunday Night Seven 608,000
- Howards End ABC 423,000
- Howards End-Le ABC 371,000
- Weinstein: The Inside Story Nine 354,000
- Crimes That Shook The World Seven 316,000
- Ten Eyewitness News Ten 293,000
- NCIS Ten 290,000
- Sunday Afternoon NRL Live Nine 270,000
- Landline-PM ABC 259,000
- Seven News At 5 Seven 253,000
- The Sunday Project 7pm Ten 250,000
- Weekend Today Nine 248,000
- Weekend Sunrise Seven 243,000
Sunday multichannel
- M- The Martian-PM 7mate 233,000
- Bananas In Pyjamas-AM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 187,000
- Sarah & Duck-AM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 169,000
- Border Security – Australia’s Front Line E2-PM 7TWO 157,000
- Insiders-AM ABC NEWS 155,000
- Dinosaur Train-AM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 154,000
- Hey Duggee-AM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 151,000
- Peppa Pig-AM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 151,000
- Play School-AM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 150,000
- Noddy Toyland Detective-AM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 146,000
- PJ Masks-AM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 142,000
- Border Security – Australia’s Front Line -7PTMWO 142,000
- Midsomer Murders 9Gem 136,000
- Fixer Upper 9Life 133,000
- Ben And Holly’s Little Kingdom-AM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 125,000
- Good Bones 9Life 123,000
- Pacific Rim 9GO! 119,000
- Sesame Street-AM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 118,000
- Wiggle, Wiggle, Wiggle-AM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 117,000
- Pocoyo-AM ABCKIDS/COMEDY 109,000
Sunday subscription tv
- Live: NRL Raiders v Knights FOX LEAGUE 285,000
- Live: NRL Sea Eagles v Eels FOX LEAGUE 236,000
- Live: Sunday Night With Matty Johns FOX LEAGUE 189,000
- Live: NRL Sunday Ticket FOX LEAGUE 180,000
- Live: NRL Sunday Ticket FOX LEAGUE 123,000
- The Mummy Foxtel Movies Premiere 64,000
- The Professor’s Farewell Tour FOX LEAGUE 62,000
- Live: Super Rugby: Waratahs v Rebels FOX SPORTS 505 58,000
- Crimes That Shook Australia crime + investigation 55,000
- Call The Midwife BBC First 53,000
- 24 Hours In Emergency LifeStyle Channel 50,000
- NRL Storm v Wests Tigers FOX LEAGUE 47,000
- The Fan FOX LEAGUE 46,000
- S.W.A.T. FOX8 43,000
- Live: AFLW: Collingwood v Adelaide FOX FOOTY 43,000
- Outsiders SKY NEWS LIVE 43,000
- Serial Killer Sunday crime + investigation 42,000
- Cars 3 Foxtel Movies Disney 42,000
- Live: Football: A-League MVC v CCM FOX SPORTS 501 41,000
- Outsiders SKY NEWS LIVE 37,000
Media News Roundup
Google to sell digital subscriptions to newspapers in Play store for the first time
The search giant is also preparing to share data that shows which internet users have a propensity to pay for online journalism, with an announcement expected tomorrow, sources said.
Google’s Play store – where owners of smartphones powered by Google’s Android operating system get movies, games, apps, music and more – is offering publishers a 95% cut of the revenue if the publisher originates the subscriber from its own platform.
MCN’s Anthony Fitzgerald: Broadcasters need to remove barriers to buying TV
Anthony Fitzgerald
Every Australian TV network has now launched its own proprietary system to automate parts of the TV supply chain, from booking and scheduling to predictive audience systems and more refined audience segmentation. But already the advertising market’s response to this technology-led innovation is simply one of “more complexity”. Advertisers and media agencies today must juggle between three or four competing trading and audience platforms in varying degrees of sophistication through the broadcast system to reach their customers and prospects.
Dentsu Aegis Network launching data-driven marketing agency Merkle
Corina Cosma GM, Melbourne at dentsu X; James Hawkins – MD APAC, dentsu X; Simon Ryan – CEO, Dentsu Aegis Network ANZ
The deal is the latest effort from DAN Australia and New Zealand’s chief executive Simon Ryan in his bid to shake up the local ad industry.
Ryan is merging Merkle with DAN’s search engine specialist agency Columbus as he seeks to reinvent DAN’s media agency holding company model by focusing on digital-first marketing services.
Ryan said Columbus chief executive Rebecca Tos would continue to lead the business, with a managing director set to be appointed underneath her.
Currently, Columbus employs about 120 staff, with plans to hire 70 staff by next year in a recruitment drive that signals how marketers are increasingly adopting data-driven decision making.
Political battle over the cost of wooing Hollywood productions to Queensland
But it has set off a political battle over the cost of wooing Hollywood studio Paramount to the state.
The premier has refused to release how much the deal will cost taxpayers, saying it was commercial-in-confidence, but the figure is believed to be more than $4 million.
The Queensland Government will draw from a $20 million film attraction fund and also dip into legacy funds designed to find new uses for Commonwealth Games venues to come up with the cash.
But Palaszczuk blasted the Federal Government for failing to almost double a tax offset for film producers to 30% to help clinch the deal.
News Brands
Sky News changes: New Friday show for Rita Panahi, Rob Raschke resigns
Rob Raschke, executive editor of Sky News Australia, has left the network. Chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos told staff in a note last week he had accepted Raschke’s resignation.
Meanwhile, the network is giving Herald Sun columnist Rita Panahi a 4pm program titled The Friday Show.
Radio
Nova Entertainment invests in new mobile pop culture platform GOAT
GOAT.com.au is a pop culture, news and entertainment platform, only accessible via mobile browsers, that directly targets millennial consumers.
Designed exclusively for mobile consumption, with a frank and uniquely Australian tone of voice, GOAT delivers snackable and engaging content across written, video, image and audio formats. It provides an informed, opinion-driven and engaging take on the day’s trending, entertainment and topical news.
Cathy O’Connor, Nova Entertainment’s CEO, said, “Nova Entertainment continues to evolve its digital content and platform offering and GOAT is our next example of that journey. It’s a fresh new mobile and video offering for millennials with its own personality and tone, which is quite distinct from our broadcast brands Nova and smooth.”
The mobile-only positioning has been developed in response to the Australian audience’s dramatic shift to mobile devices, with Deloitte research highlighting smartphone penetration approaching 95% for millennials.
In response to the research, which also highlighted the changing sharing habits of this audience, a number of innovations were developed in GOAT’s design and unique interface.
In the main navigation bar a new channel, called BLEATS, houses the ongoing production of GIF and image-based meme visual headline content, enhancing shareability and wider distribution.
Jo Hall dropped as the host of Crocmedia’s radio show Great Australian Lives
The program, produced by Crocmedia and heard on 3AW as well as available as a podcast, saw Hall interview significant Australians including Brendan Nottle, Sir Gustav Nossal, Sam Newman, Tina Arena, Shane Warne and Ben Roberts-Smith.
“Jo’s actions were not aligned with our business values and we’ve chosen to part company,” Crocmedia’s chief operating officer Jodie Simm said in a statement on Friday. “We thank Jo for her contribution and wish her well. A new host will be announced shortly.”
Television
Rove says audiences want Rove Live, but TV programmers not interested
This week, it’s all about his new panel program, Show Me The Movie! – described as the Spicks And Specks for film buffs, and co-starring comic Joel Creasey and Offspring favourite Jane Harber.
Being thrown the keys to the new vehicle by the people behind Spicks and Good News Week has been a relief for the TV presenter and producer, whose Roving Enterprises – responsible for The Project and other shows – has kept him busy behind the scenes.
[When asked about the possibility of Rove Live returning, he commented]
“I get asked about it on the street all the time, yet for some reason network programmers aren’t interested. There’s obviously an appetite for it.
“We can cook and renovate at the same time, it would be great to have a platform for new acts or comedians. The fact there’s nowhere to go for musicians either … it would be great to bring back that variety show.”
Candyman plan for reality TV series in doubt as businessman sues Vice Australia
Details of the bid to use a 30-minute documentary as a catalyst “to promote a larger reality television” show to US networks were revealed in Brisbane Supreme Court, where Beynon and three companies that “manage and choreograph” his Candyman brand have sued Vice Australia, which was producing the film to air on SBS channel Viceland.
Beynon’s companies on March 2 launched a bid to block Vice from airing footage filmed in December at his exclusive “Freaks Unleashed” party, and want the court to rule that Vice has “engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct under Australian consumer law”.
Sports Media
Nine and Ten could lob a joint-bid today for Cricket Australia’s broadcast rights
Bids for the latest cricket deal are due by 5pm Monday and all three broadcasters are keen to secure the sport, but they are also reluctant to see sports rights keep inflating at unsustainable rates.
It’s believed a three-way joint bid has been explored and could happen, but it is more likely Nine and Ten bid together and if Fox Sports becomes a part of the deal it will be after Monday. Nine and Fox Sports, which is owned by News Corporation, have had ongoing discussions regarding a joint bid, as revealed by The Australian Financial Review in February.
New Magazines This Week
