Co-founder and IMAA inaugural chairman Dominic Pearman said at the time: “There are many benefits for advertisers to work with independent media agencies, one of the most important being the depth and longevity of experience they provide and staff consistency and stability. We are business owners working within the business. The IMAA will provide the independent sector with a louder, unified voice to educate the industry and demonstrate the great work we do and help grow the Australian economy.”

This week the IMAA held its first member event – experts from financial, legal and economic professions helped members on how to navigate and survive the COVID-19 crisis.

Pearman, who is also the MD of his media agency Pearman Media, said the new organisation had a calendar of events planned across the year. “The included events for the training of staff from April and we have now had to postpone that,” Pearman told Mediaweek after the first IMAA webinar. “Our leadership team is still meeting every two weeks and we will in the future be running further webinars.”

Like all businesses impacted by COVID-19, the focus is keeping staff safe and employed.

“Since the Job Keeper announcement, it has made a massive difference for our members,” Pearman said. “If you have a staff of 20 people, you could qualify for a significant monthly payment from the government.”

Pearman explained the initial reaction to the IMAA launch has been fantastic with more businesses wanting to join. The organisation workload has meant it is looking to take on an administrator as the five-person board also need to be running their own businesses.

If anybody in media agency land is prepared to deal with the current market turmoil, it should be the owners of smaller independent media agencies. Pearman said 75% of his members have been running their businesses for over a decade and over half for close to 20 years.

“We have a lot of stability among the ranks. But these are certainly strange times for all of us as well are working from home.”

The combined staff numbers from companies in the IMAA runs into the hundreds – some with less than 10 to others with over 50. The exact total billings of members is hard to gauge exactly. Around $3b is perhaps close, meaning it is a very significant part of the total market. “It is about 20-25% of all billings,” said Pearman. “Some media companies tell us their independent media agency income has gone from 15% about four to five years ago to 30% currently.”

Cashflow can be a challenge at the best of times for agencies as they juggle bills from media companies and wait for advertisers paying for bought media. “The media has been fantastic to deal with,” said Pearman. “They are hurting as much as everyone else, yet they are helping as much as they can. They would be facing some clients who are unable to pay their bills for now.”

As to how confident Pearman is about adspend returning when the pandemic passes, he said: “I’ve been around long enough to know that advertising works. I am very confident that things will get back to normal. There could be more changes to media consumption habits and working from home could be more accepted.

“The thing about this is that media consumption is up – television and digital in particular. At the same time rates are down massively. If you’ve got distribution and the budget, now is such a good time to buy media.”

Pearman noted clients have pulled media spends for different reasons. “Some have had to cancel because they are in events or travel. On the other hand we have some clients whose sales have never been as good. Anybody in FMCG is booming. Some clients have products that have sold out and therefore no need to advertise. Others are not advertising because their products are moving off the shelf without any support.”

Pearman Media has yet to let any staff go. “I made the deliberate decision that I would let myself go into debt if necessary. The Job Keeper package makes me feel a lot more confident that we probably won’t have to.”

The business is adapting well to working from home. One media industry regular event has continued – “We had virtual drinks from home last Friday and will do it again this Friday.”

Pearman added: “There has been some talk that work is getting done more efficiently at home because there are less distractions and starting early or working later are more easily managed because of no commute times. The phone doesn’t seem to ring as much and people aren’t walking into my office.” He noted the experience can vary depending on the various living conditions.

—

Top Photo:  IMAA members at the February launch event

She has told staff she wants the business to emerge from the industry downturn “a stronger, more innovative and more agile organisation”.

McGarvey’s email said in part:

Despite more viewers turning to television for the latest news, information and entertainment that we provide, our business has been directly impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. It has clearly affected our day-to-day operations, at least temporarily.

During this time, we must continue to work together to maintain our news functions and broadcast operations, not only for us as a business but for the greater community.

Today we are announcing a suite of measures to support the needs of our employees while we adapt to changing workloads and operational needs. Our aim is to minimise both the temporary and permanent workforce impacts we are seeing at other companies in Australia and internationally. We are focused on positioning the business for resilience and growth as the social and economic impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic start to ease.

Please note the below measures do not relate to 10 Daily, 10 News, Studio 10, The Project, Broadcast Operations and Engineering.

The measures Network 10 will be implementing include:

Easter Shutdown (14 to 17 April 2020)

Enlisting the support of managers to implement an Easter Shutdown period following Easter Monday (i.e., 14 – 17 April 2020) for all employees and maintaining only a skeleton staff guided by the following:

Only employees with sufficient balances will be asked to take leave during the four days (e.g., an employee with two days may be asked to work half days for the four days of the shutdown).
Employees with high leave balances and/or whose workloads have been impacted will be asked to continue to take a longer period of leave after the Easter shutdown.

Nine day fortnight April to June

Commencing 20 April, 2020 employees will be encouraged to work a 9 day fortnight for April, May and June. If an employee has appropriate leave balances they may supplement the 10th day with annual leave or potentially long service leave.

Temporary requests for part time and increased flexibility

Enhanced opportunities are available for employees to request a temporary change to part-time work during the months of April, May and June 2020.

Change of work hours: Managers and employees can also consider split shifts wherever viable. This measure is for those who are working from home and require assistance in managing their workload with school-aged children (e.g., two hours before 8:00am, four hours during the period of 9:00am – 5:00pm and 1.6 hours after 8:00pm).

Nine will launch 9Rush, which it is calling the new home of high adventure, high octane and high adrenaline reality programming, in partnership with Discovery on Sunday April 5 at 7pm.

9Rush, Australia’s latest multi-channel, will be designated as Channel 96. It won’t be available on the Foxtel platform, something that Foxtel iQ4 satellite subscribers will find frustrating as neither is Nine’s Gem or 9Life.

9Rush will commence at 7.00pm on Sunday, April 5 with the exclusive premiere of the new series of Top Gear UK, featuring Australia’s favourite British import, Freddie Flintoff (who is part of the commentary team on Australian Ninja Warrior).

See also:
Nine’s adrenaline injection: Behind the launch of 9Rush channel
• Theme nights revealed, new Top Gear at last, more for 9Now too

For anyone with a taste for adventure, a need for speed or who enjoys the thrill of the chase, with Discovery’s extensive back catalogue of globally renowned, premium real-life entertainment content, this is the channel for you.

All titles are brand new, free-to-air-first programs that feature characters who must be seen to be believed.

Whether it’s digging for riches in Gold Rush: Parker’s Trail, street racing in Oklahoma with Street Outlaws, kicking in doors with the police in the USA on Live PD, transforming rusty wrecks into one-of-a-kind rides with Kindig Customs, or extreme survival off the grid in the wilderness with Alaskan Bush People, 9Rush will be your 24-hour male reality obsession.

It will also include free-to-air, premiere episodes of Running Wild with Bear Grylls, which documents the survival instructor’s return to the wilderness, battling the elements with a host of Hollywood celebrities, and Man vs Wild, Grylls’ breakout show – where he tackles seemingly impossible challenges in the most remote parts of the globe.

See also:
New Top Gear episodes should attract launch crowd to 9Rush
• Chris Harris: “The brand will survive beyond the presenters”

“At Discovery, we’re dedicated to powering the passions of our audiences with the best in real-life entertainment,” Rebecca Kent, general manager, Discovery Australia, New Zealand & Pacific Islands, says of the extension of Nine and Discovery’s existing partnership.

“Action and adventure is a huge part of our DNA and we’re proud to be bringing our globally renowned and loved programming to 9Rush. We look forward to strengthening our partnership with Nine and connecting new viewers to Discovery’s powerhouse programs.”

“Nine are thrilled to partner with Discovery to deliver premium, free to air first content. As a global leader in real-life entertainment, Discovery’s dedication to serving audiences with content which inspires, informs and entertains is second to none,” said Nine’s program director, Hamish Turner.

“The deal will deliver Nine and 9Now thousands of free to air premiere episodes. 9Rush audiences will be spoilt for choice, with an extensive range of high action and adventure programming, available on Australia’s latest channel and available free on 9Now.”

Strachan is hosting a two-part special of The Sweet Life with Elise Strachan which goes on a flavour-filled exploration of the international desserts trending online, made right here in Australia by a diverse array of multicultural experts on SBS Food.

Strachan spoke to Mediaweek about the influence social media has on food, her background with guest bakers and chefs on the show, and how COVID-19 may affect future production and the industry.

Strachan explained how this show is quite interesting because it meshes what she’s been successful with in an online capacity to what SBS has been successful with in a traditional food TV capacity. “It’s slightly different to your normal cooking show because I really am engaging with the audience through their television screens and then also using social media to use a multifaceted approach so that as they’re watching the episodes and also connecting with me about it on my Instagram and Facebook. It’s a really nice blend of traditional and digital coming together.”

Phi Nguyen and Elise Strachan

In the colourful two-part special, Strachan reveals the most drooled over desserts on social media from #JellyArt to #GiantBrioche and shows the audience how to recreate them at home with the help of talented local innovators who are reinventing the classics from their home countries.

“Food is one of the biggest genres on social media,” said Strachan. “It’s universal. It connects us globally and individually and it also teaches skill sets that have kind of been lost in the last 20 years. Our mums used to teach us how to bake, and they’re all so busy and we’re all so busy that now in our downtime the internet teaches us how to bake.”

Strachan met a lot of the people on the show on social media through different hashtags. “When I discovered them on social media, I thought ‘oh my god, this is crazy talent! How does this person not have more followers?’. For this particular production, I think social media played a massive part by using some of those hashtags. Social media can seem so large and so vast but when you really drill down you can use those hashtags to find people in your area that like what you like and do what you do, and you can connect with them in a way that wouldn’t have been possible 10 years ago.”

Episode one features My Kitchen Rules 2016 winners Tasia and Gracia Seger putting a unique Indonesian spin on brûlée, culinary artist Siew Heng Boon’s epic Malaysian three-dimensional jelly cakes, chef Phi Nguyen serving up Japanese frosty favourite, Kakigōri, and Yasoda Welsh’s Indian-inspired hand-painted Mandala Cheesecakes.

Elise Strachan with Tasia and Gracia

Strachan told Mediaweek that the Seger sisters from MKR are passionate about their Indonesian cooking and their restaurant. “They’re fun personalities so it was a joy to be able to work with them in this capacity,” she said. “Yasoda from Yasodalicious makes the most fantastic mandala patterns on top of cheesecake. They’re super intricate and amazingly colourful designs on the top of vegan cheesecake.”

In episode two, Melbourne’s Nick Makrides (founder of YouTube sensation The Scran Line) whips up loukoumades cupcakes; bearded baker Ameer El-Issa’s presents his famous Middle-Eastern treat knafeh, acclaimed French pastry chef Vincent Gadan showcases chocolate spheres three ways, and Sydney-based Italian chef Paolo Gatto makes a giant Sicilian brioche bursting with home-made gelato and granita.

Makrides approached Strachan at an event eight years ago with cupcakes that he had made. Since that first meeting, the two have formed a strong friendship. “Now we are like cake wives,” laughed Strachan. “I think it’s a really lovely story because what started as a fan/influencer relationship has actually expanded into a genuine friendship and a great collaboration where we can combine our love of sweets with a unique viewpoint from being food social media influencers in Australia, and there’s not that many of us. Working with him on TV was just so much fun.”

Elise Strachan and Yasoda Welsh

SBS and SBS Food are known for their diversity and multiculturalism. “Here I’ve met a tonne of talented chefs from different cultural backgrounds who opened my eyes to techniques and flavour combinations and tips that I never would’ve encountered in my little western bubble. This show is perfect for the SBS brand because that’s what the network is all about: showing us what else is out there aside from what we know and really sharing the cultural diversity and the magic that can add to everyday lives.”

In regards to the COVID-19 crisis, Strachan said: “I think production is going to change in that potentially the amount of people required for an individual production may become less and we may streamline the way that we connect a lot of the productions.”

As a digital influencer, Strachan is in a very unique and fortunate space to be able to work from home and continue producing high-quality content and connect with her audience as well as support them at a time when there’s so much uncertainty. “As someone with an online platform and voice, it’s a responsibility to continue to provide a sense of normalcy and continue to entertain people in a way that’s relatable to right now. 

“One of the great things about digital is I can change my concept very quickly from ‘everything is amazing, let’s make a cheesecake’ to ‘oh my god, the world is ending, here’s how we plant a veggie patch”, she laughed. “It’s about making that content relatable and enjoyable.”

The Sweet Life with Elise Strachan premieres on SBS Food Thursday April 2 at 8.30pm. The series will also be available to catch up anywhere, anytime after broadcast on SBS On Demand.

The new show will be part of an integrated multi-platform event across Bauer Media’s print, digital and social channels. 

Studio 10’s Sarah Harris will return to host the festive one-hour Easter special where she will be joined by editors from The Australian Women’s Weekly, together with Australian celebrities and other well-known talent from 10. 

Following the format of the successful Christmas special, which reached more than 1.15 million viewers nationally and debuted to a national audience of more than 430,000 viewers, the Easter special will feature all the familiar favourites from The Weekly with a special festive twist. 

Nicole Byers

Editor-in-chief Nicole Byers told Mediaweek the proof in the pudding with food shows and lifestyle programs is people do love to have them in their homes. “When it comes to the lead up to holidays like Christmas and Easter, it’s a beautiful celebration of food and fashion. The reason our Christmas special was so successful was that we worked closely with 10. It was important to make the show reflect the quality and integrity of the Women’s Weekly brand and we really brought that to life.”

The show will include delicious Easter recipes, family-friendly craft ideas, the latest seasonal fashion looks, party styling tips and more. “Being Easter, It’s a big focus on food,” said Byers. “As well as our Women’s Weekly chef, we’ve been joined by a few celebrity chefs including Miguel Mastre and MasterChef’s Hayden Quinn. Viewers can expect a lot of family-favorite recipes and hot tips for making life easier when entertaining.

With home living suddenly so important for us all, Byers said: “We’re trying to be quite broad, but a lot of it is shot within our home environment because we really wanted to bring to life that feeling of being home at the holidays.”

Byers revealed they have some great creative segments lined up as children love getting crafty in the holidays. “I’ll be featured on the show along with my daughter. A lot of the talent coming on the show have kids of similar ages. Miguel brought along his two kids and Barry Du Bois who we’re going to get crafty with has also brought along his kids on the show.”

Although Easter is a time for joy and celebration, the holiday can also be tough for some families, more so now than ever. “We have a charity element in the show – It’s important in the holidays for us to take a moment to think about those who are doing it a bit tougher. We teamed up with The Smith family for this show to tell a really important story. Sarah Harris is actually an ambassador for the Smith family so it was beautiful that all those desires came together really well.”

Byers also went out to Melbourne and had a chat with Samuel Johnson and his daughter. “I had an authentic and heartwarming chat with them talking about loss and grief, and they reiterated the importance of following your dreams. It was great to get together at their family home and chat with them.”

Integrated brand sponsorship opportunities will span The Weekly’s April edition, TV broadcast, Now to Love, 10 Play and Bauer’s social channels. Byers revealed their fashion sponsor is affordable women’s label Black Pepper. “We worked with them on a gorgeous shoot. We’ve been on the road for our fashion trip to Kangaroo Valley and the cameras came along with us. It was great to get back into one of those communities that are rebuilding after the fires.”

Byers mentioned that everyone was a lot more comfortable working with channel 10 a second time around. “The first time when we did the Christmas show with them, and we knew we really aligned on the quality we wanted to achieve. It was also quite an interesting mix because our team and creative director was very involved in the styling so there was a lot of back and forth of feeling a bit greener in terms of bringing it to life for the TV. It’s been a great learning for our team but we have worked really well with 10 and it was definitely a bit smoother the second time around,” she said.

• ABC News websites held top spot for second consecutive month
• 7News moved from rank #4 to #3
• Daily Mail Australia moved from rank #5 to #4

Nielsen Digital Content Ratings data for February 2020 – a month that traditionally sees lower audiences due to fewer days in the month – ranked ABC News websites first for the second consecutive month, with a unique audience of 9.9m. News.com.au also held its position in second, with a unique audience of 9.3m.

7News moved up to third position with a unique audience of 8.4m, followed by Daily Mail Australia (7.9m) ranked fourth – up from fifth position in comparison to last month.

The executive producer 7News.com.au, Phil Goyen, said: “We’re grateful for every single Australian who clicks, reads, scrolls and watches. We are here to provide a service to our audience 24/7 – it’s that simple. Our focus will continue to be building connection, conversation and community.”

The February data is almost old news given that we are now in April and two weeks ago Nielsen released details showcasing a week of online news traffic which had the ABC ranking #1 and 7News.com.au trailing news.com.au by just 145,000 users in the week of March 16. In that March data Guardian Australia was the other big mover, ranking #4, ahead of both nine.com.au and smh.com.au.

See also: Online audiences turn to ABC, news.com.au & 7NEWS

Among the 100 blockbusters to choose from is arguably the greatest ever Grand Final – Hawthorn’s win over Geelong in 1989. Hawthorn superstars and Fox Footy’s very own Jason Dunstall and Dermott Brereton did not disappoint, nor did Cats star forward, Gary Ablett senior, who bagged nine to take home the Norm Smith Medal.

(This was game that Triple M’s football team called again just last weekend.)

Fans have the opportunity to vote for their five favourite of the 100 greatest games at foxfooty.com.au. The games will be previewed on the new talk show Fox Footy Live all week leading up to the first game next Wednesday 8th April at 8pm.

Fox Footy experts will also continue to entertain fans with live recalls of four of the top 50. Voting opened at 5pm Thursday 2nd April and closes at 8pm on Tuesday 7th April.

The games will air right across the Easter long weekend counting down to the fan favourite and number one game on Monday 13th April at 7pm.

Review a list of the Top 100 Blockbusters here.

Then vote for your favourites here.

Beginning this Friday night, April 3rd at 7:30pm AEDT, The Greatest NRL Grand Finals debuts on Nine for viewers in Sydney and Brisbane, available to watch later on 9Now for all viewers. Each week hosted by James Bracey, Nine’s panel of NRL experts including Brad Fittler, Andrew Johns and Phil Gould will break down the greatest moments from NRL history which have become legend, along with the greatest matches, the greatest tries, and the greatest Grand Final pre-game entertainment – plus the moments which didn’t quite go to plan!

They will be joined each week by players and celebrity fans who will re-live their favourite Grand Final memories, along with other members of Nine’s unrivalled commentary team, including ‘The Voice of Rugby League’ Ray Warren, Paul ‘Fatty’ Vautin and Peter ‘Sterlo’ Sterling. They will all be at their entertaining best as they uncover the stories behind the stories, the hits and misses of NRL in the 80s, and much, much more.

Viewers at home will also be able to weigh in and have their say on social media to share their thoughts and greatest memories.

The Greatest continues at 3:30pm AEDT every Saturday afternoon with The Greatest Australian Open Matches, airing nationally on Nine, as former tennis stars and members of Nine’s tennis commentary team Todd Woodbridge and Sam Groth analyse some of the most memorable Australian Open matches in the history of our grand slam.

From every gruelling rally, to every lightning ace and passionate point, the duo will pull apart the greatest moments of some of the best tennis players in the world.

This week – the tightly-fought struggle between Aussie star Nick Kyrgios and Russian Karen Khachanov which ended in the tightest of margins from this year’s Australian Open, and the gripping 2005 women’s semi-final between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova which went on to become an instant classic.

Let’s start with the ABC who will offer School on TV from mid-April, absolutely brilliant. Kudos to Fox League for asking viewers to vote on which classic footy games they want replayed. And love your work 10, for continuing to stream all-new content (Drunk History Australia) and more classic local drama (Police Rescue) on 10Play.

Seven and Nine, however, are trapped in what they’ve always done … trying to one-up each other. Nine infuriated fans by dropping the MAFS finale this week, because they wanted to move it to Sunday where it would smash House Rules: Sky High. Undeterred, Seven bumped their premiere to Monday.

So, great tit-for-tatting, but why can’t either ever try something different? If Sydney drag queen Minnie Cooper can throw together a Tonight-style show from a deserted nightclub with a stack of celebrity guests, why can’t one of our networks think up something cheap and cheerful too?

As for House Rules: Sky High, the promos suggest this is now about renovating a Gold Coast high rise, and I was so on board with that. Sadly, having now watched the first two episodes, I am more confused than a Scott Morrison press conference.

That’s because the penthouse reno is just a ruse to siphon out contestants before heading back to suburbia to fix up their homes. Why call it Sky High then? And why does judge Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen say they’re “remaking The Golden Girls” when there is not one wisecracking woman in sight, let alone four?

What is being remade is Dutch cop series Van Der Valk (Saturday on ABC) and weepy teen drama Party of Five (Good Friday on SBS Viceland). Van Der Valk had 32 episodes over 20 years from 1972, but now he no longer has a wife. Played by Hustle’s Marc Warren, this Van Der Talk sleeps with witnesses and enjoys unresolved sexual tension with his too-cool-for-school female partner.

Party Of Five (1994 – 2000) made instant stars of Matthew Fox, Neve Campbell, Scott Wolf and Lacey Chabert all playing orphaned siblings. This remake goes for a Latino spin, a la One Day At A Time (Netflix) but instead of killing the parents in a car crash, this version deports them back to Mexico for being illegal aliens. Party Of Five is a powerful and timely remake that is worth a look.

Next week, it’s the second season of Bloom on Stan for Easter.

Thursday news bulletins
Seven News 1,317,000/1,203,00
Nine News 1,160,000/1,160,000 (Highest Thursday of 2020)
ABC News 912,000
7.30 703,000
A Current Affair 851,000 (Highest Thursday of 2020)
The Latest 737,000/490,000
Nine News special COVID-19 368,000
The Project 437,000/584,000
10 News First 553,000/353,000
Sunrise 353,000
Seven News at 4 320,000/343,000
Nine’s Afternoon News 254,000
Today 255,000
News Breakfast 243,000
The Drum 259,000
The Morning Show 225,000
SBS World News 173,000
ABC Late News 167,000
Today Extra 169,000

Nine: The News had a record Thursday for the year and so did ACA and then RBT. The ob doc was on 599,000 to win the hour timeslot. Later in the evening the compelling Packer’s Gold episode of Great Australian Crime Stories did 220,000.

Seven: After the early edition of The Latest an episode of Pooch Perfect went out with 299,000 watching. Another episode of The Latest was followed by the movie Wrath of the Titans with 117,000 watching.

10: A repeat episode of Ambulance Australia did 493,000. The audience then jumped to 787,000 for Gogglebox Australia, up on last week’s 738,000. A repeat episode of Hughesy, We Have A Problem then did 247,000.

ABC: The Heights did 291,000 screening after 7.30. The final instalment of Revelation went out at 8.30pm to 415,000.