Although Brisbane-based independent agency Pivotus is best known for its digital skills, the agency started in old media.

In 2008 founder Michael Petersen (pictured) bought the representation business Jane Fewings Media (JFMedia) that dates back to 1979. Petersen’s wife Kate worked for Fewings, eventually becoming a shareholder and director after Fewings sadly passed away from cancer.

After spending time in the recruitment industry, Petersen bought JFMedia from Fewings’ husband who was then running the business.

Petersen then ran the repping business with The West Australian and Fairfax as its core clients. In 2012 he launched the JFMedia Digital brand as he watched the growth of digital ad spend, eventually moving into programmatic and offering a service to independent media buyers in Brisbane.

Working remotely is nothing new to Petersen and his team. Several years ago he spent 18 months in Europe running the business from there. “My staff have been working from home when since we shut down our office at the end of 2014,” he explained to Mediaweek.

He then launched the brand My Media Trading Desk with the aim of streamlining digital marketing with a centralised spend covering programmatic, social, native, paid search and more. “We started working with creative agencies because they tend to give you more access to the client, giving you more control and ability to influence meaning greater success for advertisers.”

The business model these days is partnering with creative agencies and winning accounts directly. Current retained clients include University of Tasmania, commercial real estate firm JLL and human capital assessment business, Revelian.

Petersen utilised one of his creative agency partners to rebrand the business as Pivotus 12 months ago and has since become a member of the Independent Media Agencies of Australia (IMAA).

Although the agency has been impacted by Covid-related slowdowns, Petersen said: “We didn’t have any travel or entertainment clients as we are more active in the B2B space and now the University sector. Media spend did drop from some clients, but we were encouraged by all retainer clients keeping to their existing agreement. We have been running live training sessions and I have an educational portal where I host digital advertising training videos.”

An indication of how the business is performing is that Pivotus has added five new roles in the past two months.

With the addition of the new Tasmanian client, Petersen estimates their revenue will now be split equally between Queensland, Tasmania and elsewhere.

While planning for growth, Petersen wants to still be referred to as a boutique business. “We like being thought of still being boutique because it goes with our more personalised service offering. Growth is definitely on the cards though.”

He says the Pivotus promise to clients is “absolute honesty and superior customer service”. He added: “It is hard to grow too quickly and keep those two things in check. We are closing the books a little bit at the moment as we onboard University of Tasmania.”

Petersen said the business is anticipating a big 2021 after hiring some great new talent. “We have secured the former MD of Mediacom Vietnam, Lam Le, who joins this week and will be based in Hobart serving the University of Tasmania account which is led by account director Audrey Fitte-Umark, who has previously with Havas and Admatic.”

See also: University of Tasmania appoints independent digital media agency Pivotus

The second show to launch under Seven’s content-led growth strategy, the network reports Farmer Wants a Wife has delivered big ratings since its premiere, regularly proving to be the most popular entertainment show in Australia on Sunday and Monday nights.

Angus Ross, Seven’s network programming director, said: “We knew Farmer Wants a Wife had its heart in the right place and this has resonated with viewers across Australia – with huge numbers on 7 and 7Plus.

“This is just the beginning: we’re excited to build on this year’s momentum by delivering a scaled-up season with even more of Farmer Wants a Wife for 2021. It continues the successful reinvention of Seven’s content slate in 2020 using proven, power formats.”

Host Natalie Gruzlewski with four of the Farmers

The network is promising the 2021 season will be even more romantic with dream overnight dates, luxury country getaways and spectacular group get togethers that will set the stage for true love to blossom.

Thrilled with the chance to play Cupid again, returning host Natalie Gruzlewski will throw in a few new surprises to help the hopeful farmers find the one.

“I’m so excited to guide another crop of hard-working Aussie farmers in their search for true love. As Australia has seen, our farmers and ladies wear their hearts on their sleeves and it’s a privilege to be a part of their life-changing love stories.”

With 99 marriages and 225 beautiful farmer babies worldwide, Farmer Wants a Wife is the most successful dating show on the planet. In Australia alone, the series has resulted in nine marriages and 20 babies.

Farmer Wants a Wife is a Fremantle and Eureka co-production for Channel 7.

Commenting on the 2021 season, Fremantle director of unscripted Jonathon Summerhayes said: “Everyone loves a love story, so it’s great to be teaming up with Eureka and Seven again to help our Aussie Farmers find true love on the land.”

Chris Culvenor, Eureka Productions co-CEO, added: “Australian audiences have fallen in love with Farmer Wants a Wife and we’re thrilled to be working with Seven and Fremantle to ramp up the romance in an even bigger and bolder season next year.”

Casting is now open for Farmer Wants a Wife 2021 www.farmerwantsawife.com.au

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Top Photos: Farmer Sam, Seven Chief Marketing Officer Charlotte Valente, Farmer Harry and Angus Ross, Seven Director of Network Programming

The Fires is a serialised anthology inspired by the extraordinary stories of the people who survived last summer’s catastrophic fire season and continue to endure their aftermath even today. Each episode is based around character studies of ordinary people caught in the unimaginable and the impossible choices they were forced to make.

Characters include volunteer firefighters; families who lost homes, livelihoods and loved ones; people who had to make agonising decisions about whether to stay or flee; and others who found themselves responsible for the lives of friends and strangers. The Fires puts viewers at the centre of an experience which most people watched from a distance.

The creative team is headed by drama creators Tony Ayres (pictured –Stateless, The Slap) along with Andrea Denholm (Wrong Kind of Black, It’s A Date) and Liz Watts (The King, True History of the Kelly Gang).

The writing team is led by International Emmy Award-winning showrunner/writer Belinda Chayko (Safe Harbour, Stateless) and includes Jacquelin Perske (The Cry), Mirrah Foulkes (Judy and Punch), Steven McGregor (Mystery Road) and new talent, Anya Beyersdorf.

ABC head of drama, entertainment and Indigenous Sally Riley said, “The ABC is delighted to be partnering with Tony Ayres and the team at TAP to bring these true stories to life. Even though the challenges and tests of endurance continue, this is an opportunity to celebrate and to remind ourselves of the strength, bravery and communal spirit that will carry us through, no matter what we face. The joy lies in our drive to give voice to the brave and fearless people whose lives and livelihoods have been irrevocably changed by this catastrophic event.”

Executive producer Tony Ayres said, “Like the rest of the world, I watched in horror last summer as I saw the devastation caused by the mega-fires. I wondered, “What can we do as artists?” For me, the answer was to tell the stories of some of the people who lived through this, so that we never forget what they went through, and always remember our responsibility for change.”

The Fires is currently in development, with filming planned for next year.

Newsrooms were slashed yet again this week at 10, and it was shocking to see how many readers of Daily Mail Australia and News Corp jumped to the nutty conclusion that “anti-Trump CBS” was “silencing” Kerrie-Anne Kennerley, when they should have been axing the “lefties” on The Project!

Christ, where do we start? Firstly, The Project is an independent production and not really part of 10 News. Secondly, if KAK is being “silenced”, why is 10 keeping on Angela Bishop and Sarah Harris who, for anyone who actually watches Studio 10, share similar political leanings.

It is of course awful for everyone who has lost their job, but spare a thought for those left behind, now having to do more work with less resources. 10 News now runs for 90 minutes, while Studio 10 goes for a mind-numbing four hours.

Studio 10 used to be a fantastic show when it only ran for two and a half hours, and included a revolving fifth panellist that allowed for a wide range of opinions. Now it is rumoured to become more like The Morning Show (Seven) and Today Extra (Nine). Good luck, although will anyone ever top KAK’s record of being the woman who has done the most live hours of Australian TV?

If Studio 10 is to become a two-header, let’s hope they have those vital ingredients my acupuncturist always talks about, yin and yang. Sometimes it got boring when Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton were on the same page on At the Movies, and it was much more memorable when they passionately disagreed with each other (e.g. any Lars Von Triers movie: Margaret 5 stars, David zero).

Yin and yang makes TV interesting, but sometimes those niggling disagreements can also fester. In the new series of Last Tango in Halifax (Saturday on ABC), Alan (Derek Jacobi) and Celia’s (Anne Reid) seven-year marriage is looking shaky because they couldn’t agree on Brexit.

Last Tango in Halifax

This beautiful, non-ageist drama also stars Sarah Lancashire as a lesbian, and she is also the star of creator Sally Wainwright’s Happy Valley (iview), which is “in development” for a third series.

You can also see Sarah Lancashire in Coronation Street: Memorable Moments (Foxtel), where she once played the delightful Raquel. The compilation specials were cobbled together (get it?) during the show’s pandemic shutdown, and look back over the show’s amazing 60 year history.

Aussie viewers are now seeing episodes of Coronation Street (UKTV) that acknowledge coronavirus is happening all around them, and it’s one of the few soaps in the world to acknowledge that reality. Fans may also notice that the costumes are a bit more crumpled than usual, not to mention which actors are better at doing their own hair and make-up.

Seven News 1,117,000/1,040,000
Nine News 1,037,000/959,000
ABC News 807,000
A Current Affair 652,000
7.30 538,000
The Project 308,000/511,000
10 News 377,000/245,000
Sunrise 264,000
The Latest 248,000
Today 221,000
News Breakfast 212,000
SBS World News 190,000
The Drum 185,000
Nine News Late Edition 151,000

Thursday TV

Seven: Home and Away ended the week on 523,000 for three episodes  after audiences of 660,000 on Monday and then two nights close to 600,000.
Later in the night The Front Bar was on 294,000 with 185,000 in Melbourne.
Seven ranked #1 network with the Father Brown audience on 7TWO helping build multichannel share. 

Nine: A Current Affair was on 652,000.
Thursday night NRL helped guide Nine to a Thursday victory with 318,000 in Sydney and Brisbane. The crowds in those markets were respectively 197,000 and 121,000. The metro network audience was 364,000.

10: The Project 7pm managed to make it back above 500,000.
The second night of The Bachelor was on 604,000 after the series launched with 681,000 on Wednesday. The Bachelor audience was enough to rank 10 #1 under 50 for the night. The episode didn’t set any records though with the smallest national crowd ever and the lowest metro audience for a long time.
Celebrity Gogglebox then did 301,000. 

ABC: Escape from the City made the top 20 with 314,000.
Not quite in the top 20 was The Heights at 8pm with 204,000.

SBS: After 190,000 watching World News, the biggest audiences were 173,000 for Dog Tales and then 169,000 for War of the Worlds.