Tom Tilley’s new PodcastOne all-star daily adventure

PodcastOne this week entered the daily news race with its own entrant – The Briefing. Like other players in the space, The Briefing is aiming to get to its audience at the same time people tune into breakfast radio. PodcastOne not only snared former triple j Hack host Tom Tilley as the anchor, but three rotating co-hosts who bring their contacts and journalism skills to the project. They are News Corp Canberra reporter Annika Smethurst, TV presenter, podcaster and commentator Jan Fran and author, columnist and commentator Jamila Rizvi.

Tilley said the plan is to have a news round-up in the first half of the 20-minute podcast and then a deeper dive into a topic later on. “The news round-up will be recorded each morning to make sure they are super fresh,” Tilley told Mediaweek. Before going live this week Tilley did demos with each of the co-hosts and a number of test runs. “The chemistry with all of them is really good. I have been on air with Jan a lot before and Jamila has been a guest on Hack. This is the first time with Annika, but it felt good on air with her straight away – she is super sharp from a news sense, is very funny and has so much epic inside goss from Canberra.”

The main change for Tilley is moving from a solo host on his triple j show to sharing the microphone on The Briefing.

“The podcast will have things in common with Hack which is where I developed my style of journalism and radio presenting,” said Tilley. He noted that people are now in the habit of turning to podcasts to supplement their daily news sources. “A lot of us have taken heart at the success of The Daily [from The New York Times] out of New York. It is a growing space, there are a few competitors, but our show has the right mix of credibility and personality for people to keep coming back.”

The former afternoon radio host admitted to not being a morning person – until now. “The alarm will be going off at 4am! [Laughs] That is pretty ruthless for me. I did host RN Breakfast at the start of the year though and got a taste for it and that was three hours of live radio.”

Tilley remains a contributing reporter on 10’s The Project and if he needs to travel he will be able to record The Briefing using SCA’s network of studios around Australia. “The good thing about this deal for me is doing everything else I want to do.” SCA reached out to Tilley and his manager Nick Fordham with the concept late last year.

Award-winning radio producer Nic McClure is EP of The Briefing and radio journalist Sally Spicer is the news producer. The podcast made an instant impact on the iTunes Charts, sitting at #3 overall on Wednesday.

Marc Fennell going again with Audible

Television and radio broadcaster and podcaster Marc Fennell has won Silver at the New York Festival for his podcast with Audible, It Burns. (Photo of the podcaster with the trophy he would have liked to receive.) The award comes on the eve of a new project that Fennell has been working on with Audible. We are not allowed to reveal what it is yet, but listen out for it toward the end of May. More here soon.

We also note Fennell was a double winner in New York, taking out Gold for his Dateline story about Hong Kong on SBS.

Cop turned reporter podcasting with News Corp

The backing of News Corp Australia has helped attract a big audience already for the new podcast series, I Catch Killers, that reveals untold stories from detectives who have investigated some of Australia’s most horrific crimes.

Former police officer Gary Jubelin, now an investigative reporter for News Corp Australia, is the host and he talks to some of Australia’s most experienced police officers to reveal the stories behind the headlines – and the cases that still haunt them.

The first podcast from a series of six is available now at truecrimeaustralia.com.au and reveals how Jubelin’s long term partner, Jason Evers, escaped a terrifying robbery while he was off-duty.

“I knew how it felt to be a victim from a personal point of view. I didn’t like pricks being able to do that to people,” Evers tells Jubelin in the podcast.

Jubelin had a 34-year career in policing and led some of the nation’s most intriguing murder investigations including the murders of Terry Falconer, investigated the serial killing of three children in Bowraville and the high-profile disappearance of toddler William Tyrrell.

He ran the crime scene following the Lindt cafe siege, investigated the death of Sydney model Caroline Byrne and recovered the body of Matthew Leveson.

Earlier this month the former NSW Police detective was fined $10,000 and convicted for making illegal recordings during the William Tyrrell investigation. He lodged an immediate appeal.

New episodes of I Catch Killers are available every Sunday on truecrimeaustralia.com.au.

Women’s Health adds title on dealing with COVID-19

The prolific podcasters at Pacific have added another episode of Uninterrupted by Women’s Health Australia every fortnight. The episode is called The Drop In and is available every second Monday. The 10-minute episodes focus on health and wellness issues impacting women during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Listen to Women’s Health Uninterrupted here.

Nearly Media adds Post Pandemic to its catalogue

Melbourne-based podcasting company Nearly Media has a new title –Courtney Carthy hosting Post Pandemic, a show about how and what might change as the world recovers from COVID-19. It’s not about fabricating a future but what lives may be like when the coronavirus pandemic is over. Host Carthy is a director of Nearly Media and creative director of podcasts for the Mushroom Group.

Other podcasters at Nearly include Dave O’Neil, Glenn Robbins and Adam Zwar.

Listen to Post Pandemic here.

Quizicle All-Stars Podcast just right for a lockdown

Nova Entertainment has launched the trivia-based, play-along podquiz Quizicle All-Stars, featuring impressive special guests including Tiger King’s John Finlay, Charles Firth and Andrew Hansen from The Chaser, Nova’s Marty Sheargold and ABC’s Hard Quiz host Tom Gleeson, following the successful series Quizicle Kids.

Hosted by comedian Lindsay Webb, Quizicle All Stars is a play-along podquiz, featuring five questions with five seconds to respond. The special guest then provides their responses and you see how you went against them. The podcast covers a range of topics from sport, music, general knowledge, entertainment and pop culture.

Quizicle All-Stars consists of bite sized episodes, under five minutes, that are perfect to keep the mind sharp and follows the success of Quizicle Kids, the podcast series that launched on 30 March, designed to challenge children’s mathematical, spelling, popular culture and general knowledge skills.

Nova Entertainment is offering commercial integration opportunities for clients.

Listen to Quizicle All-Stars here.

• Saturday’s concert will pay respect to Anzac Day and thank COVID-19 front line workers
• First announce artist lineup (in alphabetical order) includes Ben Lee, Birds of Tokyo with West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Courtney Barnett, Dave Dobbyn, Delta Goodrem, G Flip, Ian Moss, Jimmy Barnes, Kevin Parker (Tame Impala), Marlon Williams, Missy Higgins, Paul Kelly, The Rubens, The Wiggles, Vance Joy, Vika & Linda Bull with more to be announced in coming days
• Broadcast partners: Nine & 9Now 7.30pm in AU + Three & ThreeNow 9.30pm in NZ

On an Anzac Day like no other, the Australian and New Zealand music community will join together to pay its respects and celebrate the mateship between two great neighbouring nations. While recognising and acknowledging the Anzac message, we also turn our attention to those that are currently fighting on the COVID-19 front line and say, ‘Thank you’.

Anzac Day has long been a significant day for Australians and New Zealanders, honouring the sacrifice of those who fought on the front line in our defence. In the morning we gather at dawn in remembrance and throughout the day celebrate the freedom fought for, with footy games, two up at the local pub, BBQs with family and friends as well as concerts and community events. 

Delta Goodrem

Conceptualised by Michael Gudinski from Frontier Touring/Mushroom Group with some help from iconic Australian rocker Jimmy Barnes, Music From The Home Front sees Australian and New Zealand musicians uniting for an extraordinary special concert event on Anzac Day evening, screening on Nine in Australia and Three in New Zealand.

Live streaming direct from their safe locations, some of Australia and New Zealand’s most acclaimed artists will come together to celebrate the spirit that binds us all together on this special Saturday night.

Michael Gudinski, CEO of Frontier Touring and Chairman of the Mushroom Group said: “Throughout history music has helped people through times of hardship. Music From The Home Front is about uniting Australian and New Zealanders through the power of music in a time that we all need a bit of hope and happiness.”

Nine’s Head of Content Production and Development, Adrian Swift said: “Music From The Home Front is a salute from Australia and New Zealand’s music communities to everyone serving our nations under lockdown. From the military this Anzac Day to all those on the frontline fighting COVID-19 and those working to keep food delivered, shelves stacked and streets cleaned. And it’s an opportunity for everyone watching to say thanks too just by texting us as we go to air this very different Anzac Day.”

Proceedings will kick off on Anzac Day (this Saturday 25 April 2020), from 7.30pm local time on Nine in Australia and in New Zealand tune into Three at 9.30pm NZST.

Music From The Home Front is not a charity fundraiser, rather it is an opportunity for our nations to be united by music and celebrate the things that bring us together.

—

Top Photo: Jimmy Barnes (Photo: Stephanie Barnes)

This survey the station was also keen to share the growth of its streaming and on-demand audience.

But in our look at the performance of the metro FM stations in GfK Survey 2, 2020, we start with SCA in the Queensland capital.

Brisbane delivered good news for Hit 105 breakfast where Stav, Abby and Matt are now #1, their show is also SCA’s best-performing metro breakfast show in share and has the second-best FM share of any metro breakfast station.

Photo: Matt, Christian, Stav, Abby and Ella at HIT 105 recounting the outback adventure

“The Brisbane station is equal #1 overall and breakfast has pulled away from the pack,” SCA chief content officer Dave Cameron reminded Mediaweek. “We are really happy where Brisbane sits for us after survey 2 and it is one of our strongest markets. The show has been working on crisis content creation and the results are very satisfying to us.”

As to the fall at sister station Triple M Brisbane, Cameron said: “The audience has settled after Robin Bailey departed. Margaux Parker is settling in well for us. The steady cume tells us that, but there is continuing to be sampling of various shows in the market.

“Every market is seeing some impact from peoples’ routines being upended.”

While GfK provides the official surveys, Cameron said there is additional data available to guide stations on what is working. “Podcast data is showing listening is going through the roof and that is the other thing we examine closely when measuring the engagement of our content. Catch-up radio is up 66% month-on-month. Habitual listening might have changed slightly, but people are picking up their favourite shows at a more convenient time for them at the moment.”

This could have ramifications for radio listening in the future. “New habits can be formed in 30 days according to some. We are going to have essentially four months of people completely changing their habit. Radio listening is habitual and what we might find is a massive rise in people enjoying our shows in catch-up. Particularly is working from home continues to be a part of many peoples’ routine.”

Away from the east coast, Cameron said he thought the change at Triple M Adelaide, where 10+ and breakfast with Roo and Ditts both lifted significantly, “was a bounce back from where it was at the end of last year”.

Roo and Ditts

Perth and the Mix 94.5 result put a smile on his face. “We know that Mix 94.5 is the heartbeat of the city and the station has been consistent for a very long time. There was some trialling with new shows that came into the market last year. The results from survey 2 prove that there is a really loyal audience attached to 94.5 and they have returned. We should also note the Kennedy Molloy drive result in a market where you are traditionally told that content from the east won’t fly in the west – the rise of Jane and Mick in that market is outstanding.”

Kennedy Molloy did well nationally with four out of five markets either stable or increasing.

Triple M Melbourne looks like it might be a basket case as share has slipped to just 5.0% and to 5.2% for breakfast. Things aren’t necessarily as bad as that might indicate though said Cameron.

“It is a show that has been on air a long time. What I would say is that it is a show that I have spent longer listening too than any other station over the past month because of the brilliant content it has been pumping out. We are seeing great streaming and download numbers for The Hot Breakfast. That is not converting into GfK numbers.

“It is a show that was first to have the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, and the first to break many stories. In has been running some of its best content recently from the past few years.”

When asked about breakfast cume of just 283,000 (less than half of Nova’s 578,000) Cameron admitted: “It has seen better days from a GfK point of view. But we remain encouraged by the other data we are seeing.”

He also noted that the streaming and catch-up data provided to market over the survey lockdown will become more significant for the ad market to trade with.

Asked about Sydney, Cameron said it was another promising result “for Triple M’s Moonman and Jess who are offering a real point of difference with their show. There is a real need for their style of content right now, perhaps more than ever.

“From a 2Day perspective, the result is one we will continue to get until we re-evaluate the breakfast strategy. We certainly wouldn’t be launching anything right now. You can assume we are looking pretty closely at what the next evolution of 2Day breakfast may look like.”

Cameron sounded like he and Hit Network content director Gemma Fordham know what will be next. “But I’m just not going to tell you,” was he harsh response to a plea for more information. “We have a short list of people that we think could make an impact at the right time.”

Launching with a flip cover on the delicious. May issue, on sale today, and new digital vertical delicious.com.au/drinks, delicious. Drinks will feature both alcoholic and non-alcoholic news across wine, Champagne, beer, spirits, kombucha, tea and coffee; along with cocktail recipes, food and drink matching and industry insiders.

delicious. editor-in-chief Kerrie McCallum said: “delicious. and drinks go together like a martini and an olive. Drinks are a natural part of the delicious. experience. Whether you’re eating in and want the perfect drop to match with your dinner, mixing up the latest cocktail for your next virtual party, or looking for the hotspots to get a coffee in your neighbourhood.

“Launching our delicious. Drinks business is a critical step for the brand and the perfect companion to our growing delicious. ecosystem. We’re perfectly poised to grow our audience in an area we know consumers are thirsty for more content; our social, video and digital-led drinks content shows the desire is there.

“We have created a whole new world inside the magazine and online. We’re kicking off delicious. Drinks with a special flip cover and dedicated section in our May issue to celebrate the launch along with all-new content on the website.”

The delicious. Drinks content in the May issue includes a profile piece on up and comers in the drinks world, a Bloody Mary with cheese pairing from the Studd siblings, Matt Preston‘s column on cocktails with his recipe for the perfect pear and gin fizz, wintry drinks for a cosy night on the couch, new products and a postcard from the Patron distillery in Mexico.

delicious. Drinks launches with a regular new column called the Critic (Mike Bennie, delicious. drinks writer) and the Comic (Merrick Watts, comedian, radio and television presenter and qualified wine expert). delicious. food director, Phoebe Wood, will set the Critic and the Comic a drinks-matching challenge each month and for their first column, Mike and Merrick raise a toast to the sausage roll and get into a fizz over the drink that best suits.

A range of new drinks experts also join the delicious. line-up including mixologist Matt Whiley; award-winning sommelier Chris Morrison; television presenter and sommelier in training Kate Peck; and Liinaa Berry, aka The Wine Sheriff, to deliver the best insider knowledge across the category.

Features of the new delicious. Drinks digital vertical include a drinks matching module that allows users to choose their drink type and meal type for a gallery of recipes; recommended drink pairings for delicious. recipes; and a range of new video series including Cocktail Hour, with easy step-by-step cocktail recipes to pour at home.

delicious. is Australia’s leading premium food-lifestyle media brand, with more than 2.6 million* Australians having the opportunity to see the brand across print, sections and digital each month. delicious.com.au has a monthly unique audience of 1.2 million^, growing its 25-39 year-old audience by 75% year-on-year. It has a strong social audience of more than 1 million.

—

Source: *emma TM conducted by Ipsos, 12 months ending Dec 2019, Fused Nielsen Digital Panel calibrated to Digital Content Ratings, Dec 2019. All ppl 14+
^Nielsen DCR Monthly, March 2020

These are some of the highlights Netflix had for shareholders this week as it revealed its January-March 2020 performance:

In our 20+ year history, we have never seen a future more uncertain or unsettling. The coronavirus has reached every corner of the world and, in the absence of a widespread treatment or vaccine, no one knows how or when this terrible crisis will end. What’s clear is the escalating human cost in terms of lost lives and lost jobs, with tens of millions of people now out of work.

At Netflix, we’re acutely aware that we are fortunate to have a service that is even more meaningful to people confined at home, and which we can operate remotely with minimal disruption in the short to medium term. Like other home entertainment services, we’re seeing temporarily higher viewing and increased membership growth. In our case, this is offset by a sharply stronger US dollar, depressing our international revenue, resulting in revenue-as-forecast. We expect viewing to decline and membership growth to decelerate as home confinement ends, which we hope is soon.

By helping people connect with stories they love, we are able to provide comfort and escape as well as a sense of community during this pandemic. So our focus has been on maintaining the quality of our service while our employees around the world adapt to working from home.

Audience surge in Asia Pacific

The region that includes Australia might still have the smallest of the four global markets for Netflix, how it had some explosive growth. In Q1 last year Netflix had 13m subscribers in the region. In 12 months has grown to just under 20m. In that period Netflix’s global audience has grown from 152m to 183m.

Netflix productions paused

We have seen significant disruption when it comes to customer support and content production. On the customer support side, we’ve now fixed most of our work-from-home challenges. In addition, we’ve taken on another 2,000 agents (all working remotely), so our customer service levels are almost fully restored despite the increased demand.

When it comes to production, almost all filming has now been stopped globally, with the exception of a few countries like Korea and Iceland. This has been devastating for millions of workers in the TV and film industry – electricians, hair and make-up artists, carpenters and drivers who are often paid hourly wages and work project-to-project.

In March, we created a US$100 million fund to help with hardship in the industry, starting with the hardest hit workers on our productions, where Netflix has the greatest responsibility. We will have paid these crews for about seven weeks, with the goal of providing a bridge until government safety nets kick in. In addition, we’re donating $30 million to third parties and non-profits, providing emergency relief to out-of-work crew and cast across the broader TV and film industry in countries where we have a large production base.

We’ve paused most of our productions across the world in response to government lockdowns and guidance from local public health officials. In Q2, there is only a modest impact on our new releases, which is primarily language dubbing. No one knows how long it will be until we can safely restart physical production in various countries, and, once we can, what international travel will be possible, and how negotiations for various resources (e.g., talent, stages, and post-production) will play out. The impact on us is less cash spending this year as some content projects are pushed out. We are working hard to complete the content we know our members want and we’re complementing this effort with additional licensed films and series.

Our content competitors and suppliers will be impacted about as much as we are, in terms of new titles. Since we have a large library with thousands of titles for viewing and very strong recommendations, our member satisfaction may be less impacted than our peers’ by a shortage of new content, but it will take time to tell.

Content pipeline still delivering

As people shelter at home, our hope is that we can help make that experience more bearable by providing a diverse range of high-quality content for our members. While our productions are largely paused around the world, we benefit from a large pipeline of content that was either complete and ready for launch or in post-production when filming stopped.

For Q2, we’re looking forward to releasing all of our originally planned shows and films (with some language dubbing impacts on a few titles). We’re also finding ways to bolster our programming this year – including the recent acquisition of Paramount’s and Media Rights Capital’s The Lovebirds, a comedy starring Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani, for Q2’20 and Legendary Pictures’ Enola Holmes starring Millie Bobby Brown, Helena Bonham Carter, Henry Cavill, and Sam Claflin, for Q3 ‘20.

OZARK

Our Q1 slate highlighted the variety of content that people enjoy en masse all over the world on Netflix: scripted English language series like Ozark season 3 (a projected 29m member households will have chosen to watch this season in its first four weeks), the docu-series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness (64m), our breakthrough unscripted dating show Love is Blind (30m), original film Spenser Confidential (85m), and season four of the Spanish language hit La Casa de Papel, aka Money Heist (a projected 65m), which debuted in early April.

WONDERLAND_10_15_2018-00257.arw

In Q2, we are looking forward to the launch of Space Force, our new original comedy series created by Greg Daniels (The Office) and Steve Carell, starring Carell, John Malkovich and Lisa Kudrow. We just launched our latest buzzy unscripted series Too Hot to Handle, #BlackAF from Kenya Barris and, outside the US, the Michael Jordan documentary The Last Dance, which we co-produced with ESPN (launching on Netflix in the US on July 19).

We will also premiere Hollywood from Ryan Murphy, and, later this week, Extraction, a large scale action film starring Chris Hemsworth and directed by Sam Hargrave, who was the stunt coordinator and choreographer on films like Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, Deadpool 2, and Captain America: Civil War.

Popular Product

In February, we rolled out our Top 10 most popular lists to nearly 100 countries, after testing this feature last year in the UK and Mexico. In each of these countries, there are now three daily lists: Top 10 overall, Top 10 series and Top 10 films. Our goal with this feature is to help members find great TV shows and films and enable them to be part of the cultural zeitgeist in their country.

The results reflect the strength of the music industry before the COVID-19 crisis presented it with a series of major challenges.

2019’s results stand in stark contrast to how the last decade began, when the Australian recorded music industry revenue was in decline whilst fighting the twin battle of unlicensed online use and digital disruption. In 2010, the industry stood at $384 million with physical sales making up 73% of the Australian music market. Today, the Australian recorded music industry is a digital-first business.

Highlights from the 2019 results include:

• Streaming revenue now makes over 80% of the Australian music market, a result that reflects 18% YOY growth in 2019. This streaming category includes revenue from subscription services (including Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music) and other non-subscription on-demand streaming services.
• Revenue from digital downloads across albums and tracks declined by 34%. Physical sales also suffered an overall decline of 21%.
• Revenue for vinyl in Australia sees modest growth at 2.5%. Vinyl revenue now makes up 38% of physical album revenue in Australia, up from 29% in 2018.
• This is the best result for the industry since 2004.
• The last time the Australian music industry saw five consecutive years of growth was in the years 1995 to 1999.

Dan Rosen, CEO of ARIA, said: “2019 was a strong year for the Australian recording industry as we saw the fifth consecutive year of growth. 2020 will be a year like no other due to the impact of COVID-19, but Australian artists and the music industry have faced numerous challenges over the years and have consistently adapted and innovated. With the continued support of Australian music fans, the music community and government, we will get through this together.”

Wednesday news highlights
Seven News 1,291,000/1,192,000
Nine News 1,135,000/1,106,000
ABC News 929,000
A Current Affair 852,000
7.30 779,000
The Project 359,000/615,000
10 News 466,000/293,000
Sunrise 314,000
The Drum 290,000
ABC News Breakfast 238,000
Today 238,000
The Latest 213,000
SBS World News 184,000
Morning Show 179,000
Nine Late News 156,000

Nine: A Current Affair kept most of the 864,000 watching on Tuesday with 852,000 for its midweek edition.Nine might not have local drama quota obligations this year, but that didn’t stop it offering Doctor Doctor in an early slot at 7.30pm. It seems to have caught the audience off guard though with 457,000 not as strong as the 500,000+ crowds it was getting with MAFS as a lead-in.
Paramedics actually managed to grow the Nine audience with 484,000 after 8.30pm.
The Late News is living up to its name with Nine testing the demand after New Amsterdam last night in some markets.
In Melbourne the Late News didn’t go to air until close to midnight with Footy Classified screening after 10.45pm to 66,000 (44,000 in Melbourne).

Seven: Home and Away had its third consecutive night close to 650,000.
The audience of 568,000 for 90 minutes of Britain’s Got Talent helped the channel win the night in primary all people share. It might be good news for the channel’s bookkeepers, but frustrating for program makers in that it had a bigger audience (just) than House Rules this week or Doctor Doctor last night.
Mrs Brown’s Boys then followed with a Christmas Special on 382,000.

10: The Project kept the crowd over 600,000 which 10 will be hoping might become the show’s new normal. Guests last night included the stars of The Secrets She Keeps.
On MasterChef it was time for a mystery box, this time with contents gathered by new judge Melissa Leong. The cook determined who will go into the fight for immunity tonight ahead of the elimination on Sunday. Without any other reality competition in the time slot the audience edged back closer to 1m with 994,000 watching.
The compelling new drama The Secrets She Keeps started with 399,000 after the show was available on 10 play some time ago. Made by Lingo Pictures, the company owned by Helen Bowden and Jason Stephens, must be the hottest drama producer in the business at present with its recent track record also including Lambs of God and Upright.

ABC: A 7.30 report on PPE (personal protestive equipment) price gouging was very timely with the show on 779,000.
Hard Quiz was on 723,000 after 734,000 a week ago. One of the contestants chose the Mazda MX5 as his specialist subject.
The final episode of this series of Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell then did 671,000 after 674,000 last week.

SBS: Britain’s Cathedrals with Tony Robinson did 270,000 as the host visited Canterbury Cathedral.
The launch of the drama Reprisal, from the makers of The Handmaid’s Tale, followed with 143,000 watching the first two episodes.