Current and former female sporting stars, representatives from sports codes and politicians came together this week at Parliament House, Canberra, to celebrate women’s sport and women in sport at the Fox Sports’ Dare to Dream event.
Former greats Lauren Jackson and Leisel Jones, along with current stars Simona de Silvestro, Ellia Green, Caitlin Foord and Sam Bremner were some of the athletes who attended the event hosted by Fox Sports’ presenters Yvonne Sampson, Kel Underwood and Jess Yates.
The event showcased how Fox Sports will provide further opportunities to female athletes and those working in the media as the network builds towards its biggest year of women’s coverage yet.
Foxtel will show 90% of all women’s sport on Australian TV, four times more than all free-to-air networks combined.
An increased lineup will deliver the biggest year of coverage yet. More than 60 codes and competitions will be shown across Fox Sports’ channels in 2018 providing a platform to help grow women’s sport and creating pathways for young girls to follow their dreams.
In 2018 Fox Sports will continue to champion females on screen. A record 25 female presenters will feature across our sports coverage and will host 16 entertainment shows and live match day broadcasts.
Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany outlined Fox Sports’ ongoing commitment to providing women’s sport a platform to grow and prosper.
“In 2018, Fox Sports and the Australian Government are making sure there are more pathways, more opportunities for young girls to dare to dream.
“Dream about becoming the next Erin Phillips running out on the MCG, the future Lauren Jackson representing her country or perhaps join Simona de Silvestro competing in the same field as her male competitors.
“Our plans for women’s sport and those who lead the way on and off the screen won’t be a token effort. It will be real and it will make a difference.
“Foxtel and Fox Sports, harnessing the reach of News Corp, will help grow the profile and professionalism around women’s sport.
“We will provide more platforms for female athletes to prosper across more sports as we showcase new competitions including Super W, AFLW, increase our coverage around W-League and hockey and more.
“And in further great news, today we announce an exciting partnership with Gymnastics Australia. In the lead-up to the 2020 Olympics we will become the home of gymnastics providing more coverage of one of Australia’s highest participated female sports than ever before.
“We will continue to put more female presenters in more meaningful roles: a record 25 females across our sports coverage, and 16 shows hosted by these impressive and knowledgeable women.
“We go beyond the siren, continue past the whistle, shining a light on women’s sport in new shows, panel discussions, news bulletins and front and back pages of the newspapers.
“We support sports that are ready to be supported, sports that have developed their structure and governance and aggressively grown their fan base. It’s a two-way partnership and both have a role to play.
“We are excited for the year ahead and working with more of these sporting bodies as collectively we grow women’s sport and those working in it.”
This record-breaking audience was a 36% increase on last year’s average.
Fox Sports’ coverage of the qualifying sessions and race audience peaked at 5.40pm on Sunday with 345,000 viewers.
The channel also achieved its highest ever audience for Saturday’s qualifying and third practice session with 180,000 and 107,000 viewers respectively tuning in.
Fox Sports also recorded its highest ever daily share on Saturday claiming 25.18% of viewing in Foxtel homes. Also screening across the platform that day were live AFL, NRL, test cricket and Supercars.
The Virgin Australia Supercars Championship also broke records over the weekend, with Race 6 more than doubling its audience from last year’s Sunday race attracting 190,000 viewers.
Fox Sports’ head of television Steve Crawley said: “This is a fantastic result for Fox Sports and for Formula 1. We knew our ad-break free coverage of the qualifying sessions and race would be a game changer, and clearly fans loved it, with a 36% increase on last year’s race audience.
“And the season has only just begun. Fans can expect more of our unrivalled coverage throughout the year with every event from now on exclusively live on Fox Sports.”
Top photo: Sebastian Vettel (credit: Shutterstock)
By James Manning
Mix 102.3’s Jodie and Soda share a trait similar to many successful breakfast radio shows. They aren’t big fans of air checks and they try to get away from work as soon as possible each day after their Adelaide Mix program.
“Quite often we find it is actually nice to live your life so you have things to talk about on air,” Jodie Oddy told Mediaweek.
Mark Soderstrom, aka Soda, told Mediaweek there is not much incentive to stay close to the studio. “It has no windows that look outside. We feel a little like bats in there. To get out and see some sunlight is important to keep us alive.”
The Jodie and Soda partnership is in its fifth year, although Jodie Oddy has been with the broadcaster for 11 years.
Sounding genuinely impressed, Soda chipped in: “Eleven years, that is astounding. I don’t know how many people would have been in FM breakfast for that long.”
That amount of service to an FM broadcaster would put Oddy in an elite club.
The ARN Adelaide station was the biggest improver across all the metro markets in GfK survey 1 this year. Its share 10+ grew 3.8 to 16.1%. While breakfast jumped an impressive 3.3 to 15.1%, the rest of the station boomed too with morning up 5.2 and afternoon, get this, up 6.0.
Adelaide content director Sue Carter (see Mediaweek tomorrow for more) is a big part of the success and ARN is now utilising her talents with a move to Melbourne.
MORE: After Mix Adelaide explodes to 16% share, ARN moves content guru Sue Carter to Gold
Soda described his relationship with Jodie as “a bit brother and sistery”.
He added: “We will rip into each other and have digs but, when we need to stand up for each other, we do it straight away to defend them in a serious situation.”
Jodie: “In my experience the best partnerships are the ones where you have complete and total trust in each other. Knowing you have the full support of somebody is one of the secrets to doing well.”
Soda: “Sometimes I have to look at Jodie to know how far to push on a particular subject. We have had some serious conflict like you would have in a sibling relationship. There have been occasions where both of us have walked out on each other.
“Once last year Jodie walked out about 8.30am so I had to fill the show for the last 30 minutes. She walked down the street and didn’t return to work.”
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The 2018 Starcom Media Futures report was released yesterday at an Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) Sydney event attended by 150 marketers and media executives. A Melbourne launch event is being held by the AANA tomorrow.
MORE: AANA CEO John Broome on the future of advertising
Starcom claims this is the only report of its kind, and uses a combination of consumer and industry research with marketers and media owners.
This year the report highlights Australian businesses said that they had reached 90% adoption of advanced customer experience (CX) practice – versus the 2017 figure of 55%.
However the expectation gap between companies and consumers has widened, with marketers rating themselves more than twice as high (106%) as consumers in delivering great CX.
The report also identified three future media battlegrounds.
1. From personalised to personal, which leads to higher ROE.
2. Personal TV, where live audiovisual consumption is still king with 81%. The ad-funded challenge for the growing on-demand audience which pays for Netflix or Stan.
3. Voice: The growth of digital voice assistants from the likes of Amazon, Google and Apple. Devices are expected to be in 30% of Australian households within three years.
The Power of Positivity was identified as the single biggest factor influencing consumer behaviour and CX in the report. The biggest influence on positive experiences is “personal relevance”, with 81% of very positive experiences being very personally relevant.
People who had a “very positive” experience are 10 times more likely to choose a brand than those who had a “fairly positive” experience.
The report found that real life experiences with brands are 2.4 times more likely to be very positive. Just 32% of experiences were as a result of paid media, meaning that marketers and media need to rethink the role of all media across paid, owned, earned and shared to created powerful connected experiences.
Media Futures has identified “return on experience” (ROE), as an additional measure that works in tandem with return on investment (ROI). ROE, which combines business and human outcomes, is the most valuable measurement for brand choice.
“We can now quantify the value of real life connected experiences through ROE. Connected end-to-end experiences through paid, owned, earned and shared are 1.5 times more likely to be very positive. The underlying cause of the expectation gap is in missing the fundamental drivers of human behaviour – the power of positive customer experiences,” Starcom Australia CEO Toby Barbour said.
“We have evolved our approach to Media Futures, focusing primarily on understanding human motivation, and applying our insights to close the gap between what people want, and what brands need to drive long term growth.
“Our focus for client investment will be working to close the expectation gap by satisfying the tension between what people want and what brands need to create connected experiences that drive human and business outcomes. The ROE framework will be a key indicator of success,” he said.
The 25-year-old Media Futures study has changed its methodology due to the rapid rise in the scope and breadth of media available to marketers over the last decade. The study uses “real time experience tracking” to analyse what experiences impact customer behaviour – not just what people did, but also how it made them feel towards brands and what changed as a result.
By James Manning
Just over a week after launch, GOAT has revealed its key editorial team members after a wide search.
Reiken told Mediaweek, “We wanted people who can really connect across a wide range of topics. What is really great about our tone of voice and the editorial philosophy we are building is that we are open to working with a wide range of contributors.”
The editorial team for GOAT is led by managing editor Giles Hardie, formerly Fairfax Media reporter and an ABC broadcaster, and editor Neal Downward, the former managing editor of SBS Comedy.
Goat.com.au has launched ad-free. “For a new mobile platform the audience comes first and we have thought about the user experience,” said Reiken. “We don’t want banner ads that don’t engage the millennial audience. Goat.com.au is a platform for engagement and a platform for attention.”
He also flagged Nova Entertainment will soon have an announcement about launch partners.
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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 event saw an address from John Eren MP, as well as a panel led by The Age’s senior sports writer Michael Gleeson, which featured The Age’s football writer Jake Niall, dual Brownlow Medallist and columnist for The Age Chris Judd, and The Age’s chief sports columnist and associate editor Greg Baum.
The Age’s publisher Mark Hawthorne said, “We are the only news organisation in this town old enough to have been there for the very first match in 1858.
“We were here for the formation of the league, we have reported every single season and every grand final, and this season we have reinvested in our football team.
“We have welcomed Jake Niall back into the fold as our chief football writer, replacing the legendary Caroline Wilson who remains a key columnist. Martin Blake is back, Warwick Green is back and Peter Ryan has joined our team from AFL.com.”
The Age’s editor Alex Lavelle said, “As always, we eagerly await the AFL season opening and it was a privilege to host this prestigious event with some of the most knowledgeable and experienced sporting and sports reporting talent around, as well the Honorable John Eren MP.
“It reflects the emphasis we place on providing Australia with the greatest insight into sports, and AFL in particular.”
“This year, we’re particularly excited to see how people interact with our new platform, which focuses on placing our award-winning content and imagery front and centre. It also gives our audiences the chance to really feel part of the AFL community via the commentary feature we’ve introduced, so we expect some lively debate online.”
Top photo: The Age editor Alex Lavelle
• High tide: Big swell for Bondi Rescue with biggest audience since March 2016
• SBS success: Insight cracks the top 20 for episode on secret life of partners
By James Manning
Home and Away was just under 650,000.
Ob docs returned to the 7.30pm timeslot with two episodes of Border Security: America’s Front Line on 348,000 and then 253,000. The first ep didn’t screen in Adelaide and the second was not seen in Melbourne or Adelaide.
Seven’s Tuesday Easter movie was Deadly Visions with 141,000.
A Current Affair was on 789,000, close to Monday’s 787,000. Highlight of the episode was an interview Reid Butler had with Mark Hamill. The actor better known to millions as Luke Skywalker found time to endorse the show’s host Tracy Grimshaw for a TV Week Logie with the first round of voting to close this weekend.
Young Sheldon episode two performed almost as strongly as the first with a small audience drop from 1.05m to 986,000.
New The Big Bang Theory followed on 822,000 after 890,000 on Monday.
Nine’s Tuesday movie Transformers: Dark Of The Moon then did 280,000.
It is Comedy Festival Central still on The Project with Urzila Carlson a featured guest last night for 504,000.
Bondi Rescue then was screened with back-to-back episodes and the ob doc’s best audience in two years – 449,000 for the first episode and then 550,000 for the second.
Hughesy, We Have A Problem then did 559,000.
The Checkout did 458,000 after 441,000 a week ago.
Part three of The Human Body then did 375,000.
Insight delivered the channel’s biggest audience as the show found a spot in the top 20 via its audience of 357,000, which could be enough to rank #1 for the week for the channel.
A UK repeat episode of Who Do You Think You Are? did 245,000 with Dateline on 220,000 later in the evening.
TUESDAY METRO | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven | Nine | Ten | SBS | |||||
ABC | 12.0% | 7 | 16.4% | 9 | 20.3% | TEN | 13.9% | SBS One | 6.5% |
ABC 2 | 2.7% | 7TWO | 3.6% | GO! | 2.6% | ONE | 3.3% | VICELAND | 1.2% |
ABC ME | 0.9% | 7mate | 3.1% | GEM | 3.5% | ELEVEN | 2.7% | Food Net | 1.0% |
ABC News | 1.6% | 7flix | 1.8% | 9Life | 2.6% | NITV | 0.2% | ||
TOTAL | 17.3% | 24.9% | 29.0% | 19.9% | 9.0% |
TUESDAY REGIONAL | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven Affiliates | Nine Affiliates | Ten Affiliates | SBS | |||||
ABC | 11.1% | 7 | 17.9% | 9 | 16.6% | WIN | 11.5% | SBS One | 6.0% |
ABC 2 | 3.3% | 7TWO | 5.0% | GO! | 3.2% | ONE | 3.3% | VICELAND | 0.9% |
ABC ME | 1.0% | 7mate | 4.6% | GEM | 5.2% | ELEVEN | 3.1% | Food Net | 1.0% |
NEWS 24 | 1.9% | 7flix | 2.0% | 9Life | 2.3% | NITV | 0.2% | ||
TOTAL | 17.3% | 29.5% | 27.3% | 17.9% | 8.1% |
TUESDAY METRO ALL TV | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FTA | STV | ||||||||
83.6% | 16.4% |
16-39 Top 5
18-49 Top 5
25-54 Top 5
Current chief revenue officer Paul Sigaloff has been promoted to managing director of Oath, ANZ.
As part of the transition, CEO Ed Harrison, CFO Penny Diamantakiou, CTO Paul Russell, and director of product Mark Robinson will leave Yahoo7.
SWM’s chief executive officer Tim Worner said: “Over the past 18 months we have executed our strategy to control the distribution and monetisation of our digital products, and as a result we’re seeing strong audience and revenue growth.
“The natural next step of that strategy is to sell our stake in Yahoo7, which sadly means that we must part ways with our friends in Yahoo7 and our partners in Oath.”
Oath’s head of APAC Rose Tsou said: “Simplifying our structure in Australia and New Zealand is a big moment for Oath and our advertising and publisher partners. We see a huge amount of opportunity for growth through our global house of brands and technology platforms.”
Street Talk can reveal Citi’s investment banking team in Melbourne has been given the role of canvassing the market’s appetite in News Corp’s regional publishing business.
News’s regional unit includes dozens of local newspapers, some of which were only picked up in 2016 when News Corp bought what was then APN News & Media’s (now HT&E) regional publishing business.
Today, Wednesday March 28, the telecommunications provider will announce Vodafone TV, which runs on Google’s Android platform, with access to the search giant’s Play Store, and includes a free-to-air television tuner.
Vodafone TV can be bought in-store for $120 or added as a $5 charge to monthly bills over 24 months. The telco will offer 12 months’ free Netflix on its 24-month NBN 50 megabit-per-second and 100Mbps plans, which start at $79 to new and existing customers of the US-based streaming service.
Taking over from Matt and Alex on triple j breakfast last year, Ben and Liam had a mountain to climb. The Radio Host of the Year winners won over listeners and the industry alike with their enthusiasm and even featured on The Project on R U OK? Day when Liam opened up about how tough the year had been in an honest, vulnerable and powerful on-air monologue.
Denis Handlin AO, the Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Sony Music Entertainment Australia, has taken out Executive of the Year. Not only did he break new ground in 2017 with new initiatives such as brand deals, artist management and online talent program The ShareSpace, Handlin was awarded Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Most recently head of operations at Valtech Australia, Eames has spent the last decade in leadership at digital transformation and CX agencies including ICF Interactive, CITYTECH and ArdentDigital. With a legacy of innovative work across blue-chip brands like Danone, Lion Nathan, Network Ten, Fairfax, Foxtel and Adobe, Eames will now drive innovations in Tonic’s digital offering while managing business operations.
Effective immediately, Eames will oversee Tonic’s business strategy, technology partnerships, client management and resource optimisation, working alongside the existing leadership team.
Tonic Health offers advertisers a multichannel network of TV, digital panels and brochure boards featured in 4,500+ GP practices, hospitals, pharmacies and health centre waiting areas across the country.
The partnership aids the wider company strategy to reach and engage audiences across online, mobile and social channels. The videos created using Wochit will enhance Bauer Xcel’s unique editorial offering that promotes original, viral-oriented content centered around audience passions.
Bauer is consistently seeing content created through Wochit in the top 5% of its most viewed videos across its brands. Parkers, Bauer’s motor specialist magazine, is one brand to have seen positive results – car experts can now create short form video without the need for a separate video resource, improving its engagement with audiences on social platforms.
The deal follows a year-long relationship with Bauer Xcel Media in Germany, which helped it to accelerate the production time of video. For example, video content for Twitter can be created in less than one hour, opposed to a day, meaning more inventory can be created at a quicker scale and react to unfolding news and events.
Wochit is a video creation platform used by brands, media organisations and other content creators to produce engaging short-form video quickly and at scale. Each month, over 450 organisations including Time Inc., CBS, Gannett, ProSieben, Singapore Straits Times, and Der Spiegel use the platform’s automated, cloud-based editing, collaboration and optimisation tools and library of rights-cleared assets from AFP, AP, Getty, Reuters and others to expand audience engagement across websites, apps and social networks. The company is backed by ProSieben, Singapore Press Holdings’ SPH Media Fund, Carlo de Benedetti, Redpoint Ventures, Marker LLC, Greycroft Partners, Press Association, and Cedar Fund. Wochit is based in New York, with offices in London and Tel Aviv.
The cover series – branded the #ELLERiseUp issue – showcases five young female stars that have been making moves in 2018:
• ARIA Award-winning musician Amy Shark
• Carlton’s AFLW superstar Darcy Vescio
• Model Victoria Lee, who walked in the 2017 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show
• Outspoken actor and star of breakout hit 13 Reasons Why Katherine Langford
• Diversity advocate and acclaimed actor Danielle Macdonald
ELLE Australia editor-in-chief Justine Cullen said: “At such an important moment in time for women, ELLE is championing a new generation of smart, brave and bold trailblazers who are each making a significant mark on their respective industries.”
Also up early was Harley Breen, comedian and former co-host of 2Day FM breakfast with Em Rusciano in 2017.
Co-host Sam Pang arrived early at the special live show – a full five minutes before he was due on air at 7pm.
Valvo and Breen were on air just after 6am while other guests, who got to sleep a little later this morning, included Stephen K Amos, Nazeem Hussain, Celia Pacquola, Peter Helliar, Tom Gleeson, Dave Thornton, Urzila Carlson, Arj Barker, Judith Lucy and Denise Scott.
Meanwhile Nova 100 and ahm health insurance will present the Hits & Giggles comedy gala event, hosted by Nick Cody, featuring some of Australia’s freshest new comic talent on Saturday April 7.
This year’s lineup features live comedy sets and guest appearances from funny people Angella Dravid, Becky Lucas, Fern Brady, Michael Shafar, Nick Cody, Phil Wang, Rowan Thambar, and Zainab Johnston.
There will also be a very special Like A Version, as dreamy beat-maker Alice Ivy is joined by some epic guests including Angie McMahon, Bertie Blackman, E^ST, Eilish Gilligan, Miss Blanks, SAATSUMA, and members of Dorsal Fins and Saskwatch, all performed in front of a live audience.
The live show runs 1pm-3pm.
Meanwhile Ben and Liam’s We Cheat At Cricket video has clocked up close to 3m views after is was published on Facebook on Monday.
In this newly created role, Jackson will lead SCA’s national team of broadcast engineers, software and project engineers who are working across SCA’s radio and audio delivery platforms. He will work closely with the head of broadcast operations, head of technology and chief operating officer as well as other key stakeholders as SCA transforms delivery of its audio products.
John Kelly, chief operating officer said: “While radio remains core to our business, SCA’s strategic direction is squarely focused on audio in all its forms be they FM, AM or digital radio or audio-on-demand podcasting. SCA is ensuring our customers can access our audio products when, where and how it suits them, via terrestrial, online, apps, audio home devices or any of the other emerging technologies.”
Jackson joined SCA in 2009 as a trainee engineer under SCA’s engineering training scheme, was promoted to technology engineer and then technology manager for the Sydney operations in 2015 and then to national radio engineer in 2016.
Jackson will report to John Kelly and the appointment will be effective immediately.
A first of its kind in Australia, the website will allow people from all walks of life to express their interest in a broadcast career with SCA, across the company’s radio, podcast and digital platforms.
“Entertainers often talk about how hard it can be to get a foot in the door. Hubbletalentsearch.com will make it easier to get in front of the right people, and actively pursue a career in the industry,” said Guy Dobson, SCA chief content officer.
SCA has two new development shows on Triple M Modern Digital, and more planned for 2018.
“This is a new tactic for us, but we have more opportunities for talent than ever before, so we’re casting the net far and wide,” said Dobson.
“Over the years, we’ve found outstanding talent in some unlikely places and this ‘open door’ approach will help ensure we don’t miss anyone and give us the most diverse, competitive range of talent in the industry.”
Candidates are required to fill out a basic form, outlining their experience and aspirations, and include at least one piece of content for consideration. SCA’s talent team reviews all submissions, and applicants of interest will be demoed accordingly.
The news comes after the 50-year-old singer cancelled Australian publicity interviews for her new album due to illness.
“I’m so sorry to have to let you know that I can’t make the Red Room show this week,” Minogue said in a statement after cancelling the Nova radio performance.
Minogue was scheduled to perform at the Red Room event at the Beresford on Thursday night as part of promo for her new album, “Golden”.
She made the decision to cancel the trip to Australia altogether after performing at the amfAR Gala in Hong Kong overnight.
Hamish Rose has been promoted from agency sales manager – radio to head of agency sales. With over five years’ experience already at SCA Brisbane in a manager’s role, he will now head up a team of 14.
“Hamish has been a significant contributor to the market-leading performance of the agency team. His warmth and integrity are reflected in the professional growth of his staff and the winning culture of the team,” Allen said.
“Hamish will be tasked with monetising the fantastic environment that Triple M Brisbane offers across its three pillars of rock, sport and comedy, as well as amplifying the recent, and not before time, audience response to the HIT105 breakfast team, seeing them take the number one position.”
Allen said that two group sales manager roles had been created to support Rose in guiding the team.
Bec Cooper will step across from her digital sales manager position into a group sales manager – agency sales role. “Bec’s great enthusiasm, passion and dedication to her role will allow her to continue to oversee the office delivery of digital sales targets,” he said.
Joining Rose and Cooper will be Carla Mathisen. “Carla is highly regarded by the team and has exceptional knowledge of media planning and products. Her initiative and drive make Carla a huge asset to the leadership team,” said Allen.
“The growing importance of Brisbane and the scale of our regional markets have seen the need to elevate the team, increase its size and provide more support. It’s a great vote of confidence in both Brisbane as a leading radio market, and Southern Cross Austereo as a leader in that market.”
Marketing experts on Tuesday questioned how CA – and broadcasters – could sell the home campaign as a “premium product” if the team was without its two best talents. They said heavyweight advertisers would be in no rush to link with broadcasters for they had their own image to protect.
While deals will still be done, they may not be at the premium end of the financial spectrum.
CA is hoping for a six-year deal worth more than $900 million but this latest scandal could mean it has to accept less than it had hoped in exchange for broadcasters playing a major role in rehabilitating the image of Australian cricket.
He also managed to persuade superstar F1 champ Lewis Hamilton to take part in a podcast.
Four-time F1 world champion Hamilton features in a special bonus episode of Howard’s PodcastOne series The Howie Games.
Although short on time (18 minutes) Lewis is candid, friendly and thoughtful and good fun. Lewis talks about his rise up the ranks of Formula 1, what it takes to be the best and his famous bling.