The last week of summer has been another busy day for the diverse sports broadcaster, publisher and talent manager Crocmedia. The company released its first half results and held an Upfront event in Sydney on Thursday. Crocmedia operates under the ASX-listed Pacific Star Network (PNW).

The business incorporates Melbourne-based (and perhaps soon to be national) sports broadcaster SEN plus publishing business AFL Record, Ballpark Entertainment experience and entertainment marketing and touring division, Bravo Talent Management, Rainmaker TV production and Precision sports management.

The results showed that group revenue of $38.7m was up 16% pcp. This growth despite the radio ad market being down around 10%. The company said the strong revenue performance evidences the strength of its ability to “connect a brand to a fan” using its Whole of Sport strategy, despite volatile media advertising markets.

EBITDA was down 20% pcp. The results included the initial contribution from Liam Pickering’s Precision Talent business and Rapid TV which were both acquired early in the half.

Those two businesses plus 23 narrowband radio licences (first announced in July 2019), cost the business $9.3m.

Highlights for the half included:

• An exclusive commercial partnership with Bowls Australia and a five-year broadcast extension
• The launch of SEN SA’s showcase radio studio situated in the heart of Adelaide
• Record digital figures achieved by Crocmedia produced AFL Trade Radio, amassing over 3 million audio and video streams across only 13 days of the AFL trade period (+117% on the pcp)
• Significant digital revenue growth of almost +100% on the pcp, with several Crocmedia produced podcasts appearing in the top 100 of the Australian Podcast Ranker”
• Re-signing of chief sports caller Gerard Whateley and signing of experienced play-by-play commentator and multi-sport analyst Dwayne Russell

Regarding guidance for the second half of the current financial year Crocmedia said it expects continued revenue growth and increased earnings in 2H20 relative to 1H20.

Crocmedia is also looking over further potential acquisitions, saying “[we] are actively assessing several corporate and operational opportunities which are aligned with our strategy”.

The company’s 2020 Upfront NSW event highlighted the opportunities for advertisers in that market and nationally. MC was rugby league broadcaster Jimmy Smith who introduced a showreel and then interviewed CEO Craig Hutchison. Smith and Hutchy were then joined onstage by rugby league great and NRL Nation broadcaster Greg Alexander and player-turned-coach and broadcaster Laurie Daley.

Hutchison revealed the business is close to unveiling plans for half of its as yet unused radio licences and he also hinted there are several other projects on the horizon.

On the eve of AFL State of Origin, Hutchy indicated the importance of NRL Origin to the Crocmedia offering. It syndicates its Origin call as part of its NRL Nation product. In fact it hosts three Origin calls – Maroons Origin call, Blues Origin call and a Neutral Origin call – as part of its NRL Nation product.

As part of the AFL Nation offering in 2020, Crocmedia will also broadcast Swans Radio and Giants Radio, tracking the two Sydney teams, as part of its AFL Nation syndicated product.

The Crocmedia boss also made mention of the forthcoming NBL season. Hutchy is the chair of Melbourne United, where Crocmedia is the majority shareholder with 25% of the Melbourne team. He recommended people listen to the Saturday clash between his team and the Sydney Kings.

Crocmedia’s Sportsday NSW product goes out on stations around NSW with a two-hour program hosted by Scott Sadler and Gary Belcher.

Guests at the Crocmedia NSW Upfront event, held on the new rooftop space at the Old Clare Hotel, included many advertising partners and on-air talent. A special guest was one of Bravo Talent’s first signings around 20 years ago, Jamie Durie. The Seven co-host of the new season of House Rules is enthusiastic about the season that returns soon, telling Mediaweek some are calling it the best ever.

Other guests included busy Fox Sports broadcaster Brenton Speed and The Australian’s cricket writer and beer editor Peter Lalor.

Joining Hutchy from Crocmedia Melbourne were Bravo Talent founder and MD Chris Giannopoulos and Ballpark Entertainment executive director Mandy Henderson.

Buchanan spoke to Mediaweek about advertising partnerships, the most relevant content for their female audience, and a special recent section to the magazine featuring motoring content. 

Buchanan said the continued popularity of House & Garden comes from a beautiful mix of Australian designed homes and amazing garden content. “We have an incredible gardens editor Elizabeth Wilson, and we have about 20 pages of green-thumb content in each issue,” said Buchanan. “In terms of homes, House & Garden purely focuses on the great stuff that’s happening in the Australian interior design industry.”

Buchanan said in the last 10 years she’s seen the Australian industry of design aesthetics really come into its own. “I’ve been visiting Milan and other places overseas for years, and we used to go there for inspiration – which we still do, of course, you want to travel and see what’s going on globally – but now the Australians are taking it to the rest of the world, which is fantastic. We have so many stories to tell.”

The average reader of House & Garden is female and somewhere between their late 40s to early- mid 50s. Her average household income is a nice A/B income of around $190,000. “Most of our readers are either about to own their home or already do own their home, meaning they’re on their forever home now and they are willing to spend on beautiful art, or a special dining table, because they know they’ll have it forever.”

House & Garden magazine’s advertising ratio is usually around 30% advertising, 70% editorial. Buchanan said they’re really lucky that they’re reaching their advertising budgets, but still have really great editorial content. “That balance is good. Print for our clients like King Living, Coco Republic, and so on, it works organically being in this environment. If you see a beautiful image of a room, you want to know where the pieces are from.”

In terms of recent partnerships, Buchanan spoke about the magazine brand’s Top 50 Rooms as their regular annual awards where interior designers enter. “King Living was the lead sponsor on that last year,” said Buchanan. “Another recent partnership was a podcast with CommBank about the sandwich generation, which touches into women who are still working and look after both their kids and their own parents. It was a really interesting collaboration.”

In regards to popular content that resonates well with their audience, Buchanan said kitchens and bathrooms are always really important features for them because usually when people start renovating their homes they start in those two rooms and then move onto bigger things. “They’re always great partnerships with our advertisers. We also do renovating stories, but we don’t do it as DIY features like some of the other mags; it’s more showcasing what the renovation looks like afterwards.” 

Buchanan also revealed that decorating is back in a big way and is truly resonating with their readers. “Curtains, wallpaper, different paint colours. It’s all trending again.”

House & Garden recently launched a new section about three issues ago called ‘Great House, Great Car’ to organically reveal motoring content into the magazine. “We’re shooting people who have beautiful vintage cars, but also the interior of their house as well. The feature looks really good. Obviously, we’re hoping to not only promote great editorial content but also attract some motoring partners with that. Motoring is often presented in a blokey way, so many women who love classic cars and new cars would really appreciate the new section.”

In terms of plans for 2020, Buchanan said she wants to build on what they’re currently doing with the brand. “We’ve got the Top 50 Rooms, so we’ll be making that bigger and better, and it’s such a great partnership.

“We’re also working on a series of creative lunches where we have it in a different space. That’ll involve some sponsors, some talks with creatives whether they’re florists, artists or interior designers, and we’ll have a few tickets that readers can buy. There’s nothing like that personal reader experience, even if it’s on a small scale.”

Buchanan said it’s still a really exciting time in publishing. “It’s pretty inspiring, and I think we’re really lucky to work in this kind of space. Beautiful homes make people happy – no matter what happens during the day, if you can get home to your sanctuary, all is well.”

Now titled All it Takes is a little Gumption Burling’s first foray into book writing covers her personal story of a series of tragic events which lead to her starting her own PR company as well as tips and tricks on life and business.

Burling spoke with Mediaweek about her story, new book, and what she has in store for the future.

Being the LB in LBPR, Burling has never been afraid to put her story out there as she closely aligns her personal and business brands. She has been honest and open about the events that left her alone and unemployed with two young children, a story that she admits that she has probably told a million times by now.

After establishing herself in the PR industry in London she found life pulling her back to Australia where she started a family with her high school sweetheart, however after her second son was born premature, 48 hours later her partner told her that he didn’t love her anymore and left her. She then used her experience and contacts in PR to start and grow LBPR and has now turned that experience into a book.

Self-described as her own guinea pig with projects like her video series One Degree with Lisa B and her book, Burling says that this not only helped her scratch a creative itch but also indirectly helped her PR business by growing her own profile.

“People don’t buy from a business they buy from people so by sharing my personal story I found prospective clients had a new respect for who I am and what I do.

“You can talk about being good at PR but when you start using the principles you apply at your business on yourself you actually create a whole new interest in the business and it’s kind of like I’ll have what she’s having.”

Burling says that the two-year process of writing the book was one of the hardest things that she has ever done, including setting up LBPR. With 80% of the content not making the final cut, Burling says she had to balance her personal story with what would work best in the book.

“The book is about telling my story to start, then it is very much about okay, this is what I did and this is how you can apply it to yourself.

“The relationship breakdown for me was a huge failure, and I was scared of failing again so I started dreaming little dreams because I was so sad and down. I wanted to prove I still had it, by chunking down what I wanted to achieve and celebrating the little wins along the way which showed that the life of your dreams can happen so much quicker than you anticipate.”

After self-publishing, her book she had it put in her local Dymocks store which led to it being picked up by New Holland Publishing who changed the title, changed the look and gave her access to a much larger network of people to tell her story to.

“I wanted to self-publish because I felt I couldn’t communicate my vision effectively to a big publisher and I didn’t want them to strip down my vision. So I invested my own money into branding and a book editor to help massage it into something that made sense and leveraged my own contacts to help promote it.

“That led to me putting it into Wollongong Dymocks and a few days later a sales member took it back to the CEO and a week later I had a book contract.”

Off the back of the book, Burling plans to increase her speaking engagements, mentoring, workshops and possibly a few more books but she says her heart is still with LBPR.

“Day-to-day I’m very much still LBPR and I launched it on Valentine’s day seven years ago because I love it. Anything outside of that takes me away a little bit, but I’m never too far away. If I am going to preach gumption then I need to live it because otherwise, I am inauthentic”

You can pre-order Burling’s book here.

The announcement follows Stan’s summer launch of Australia’s biggest ever line-up of originals; including season two of The Other Guy, The Commons, The Gloaming and True History of the Kelly Gang – plus recent announcements, including The Tourist, a co-production between Stan and BBC One.

Stan parent Nine Entertainment this week revealed Stan paying subscribers had surged close to 1.8m with a forecast there could be 2m by the end of the year.

The six-part Stan original series welcomes back its stars from the first season, including two-time Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver, multi award-winning Bryan Brown and international star Phoebe Tonkin.

Joining the cast for season two is a mix of rising stars and Australian screen legends including Jacqueline McKenzie (Stan Original Series Romper Stomper), Gary Sweet (House Husbands), Bella Heathcote (Strange Angel), Toby Schmitz (Black Sails), Jackson Heywood (Home and Away) and Ed Oxenbould (Puberty Blues) – plus series one favourites Genevieve Morris (Stan Original Series No Activity), John Stanton (The Doctor Blake Mysteries) and Anne Charleston (Neighbours).

In the first season of Bloom, the residents of a small, country town, Mullan, were left reeling after an inexplicable “fountain of youth” appeared in the wake of a devastating flood. A mysterious plant with luminous berries offered a second chance to return to your prime, which proved miraculous for some, while others were corrupted and fought to possess it.

In season two, time has passed, and news of the miracle has spread, but this time around the plant itself has transformed and the experience and its side effects are far more severe. With the town’s secret having leaked, Anne Carter (Jacqueline McKenzie) – the former CEO of a biotech company – arrives in Mullan with her young daughter and her friend’s teenage son, Luke (Ed Oxenbould), for a tree-change.  But it’s only her cover story.  John Melvin (Toby Schmitz), the troubled new priest is trying hard to rally faith and is desperate for a miracle from God.  While beloved former actress, Gwen Reed (Jacki Weaver/Phoebe Tonkin), has cheated death once again, but at what cost?  As news of a “second generation” plant emerges, a battle between nature, science and faith erupts.

The first-look teaser reveals the return of Gwendolyn Reed, and also features the ARIA award-winning artist Tones & I with her cover of the hit Forever Young.

Stan Original Series Bloom was created by Glen Dolman and produced by Sue Seeary.

Bloom is produced by Sony Pictures Television’s production company Playmaker for Stan. Major production investment from Stan in association with Screen Australia. Financed with support from Film Victoria.

• Spotify Original – Search Engine Sex: A sex and relationship podcast that is on a mission to answer the most searched sex questions on the internet, hosted by Sound Up alumni Rowdie Walden.

• Spotify Exclusive – Generation Betoota: From satirical news website, The Betoota Advocate, comes a weekly youth news podcast featuring stories young people care about, using the hip language they’re fluent in.

• Spotify Exclusive – Vice Extremes Season 2: The stories of people who have lived through the far ends of human experience, with each episode featuring one story from one person, retold and unpacked with guidance by host Julian Morgans.

• Spotify Sound Up 2020: Applications now open for Spotify’s accelerator program, dedicated to lifting up and amplifying the voices of  the First Nations community in Australia.

In just under two years, Spotify has become the second largest platform for podcasts worldwide and is now investing in growing the opportunities in Australia.

The Australian market is experiencing steady growth, with 22% of the Australian population listening to a podcast each month in 2019, compared to 18% in 2018 and 17% in 2017. The number of weekly Australian podcast listeners has increased by 50% over the last three years, with 48% of podcast listeners in Australia also tuning into the radio each week, creating an immediate opportunity for new content.

Spotify reports Australians listened to 11.06 hours of online audio per week in 2019, up by over an hour since 2018, with podcasts becoming an increasingly important part of the online audio experience. The number of Spotify users streaming podcasts has also increased by over 11% in the last year alone.

Cecila Qvist, Spotify’s global head of markets said: “Our goal is to become the number one audio platform in the world, providing the best in audio content, customised, and accessible on-demand everywhere. The role our global markets play in this expansion is pivotal and we look forward to making many more announcements in this space.”

The announcement follows the recent launch of Spotify’s news and music playlist, Your Daily Drive. The feature gives listeners a seamless listening experience – combining the very best of news talk shows, including the relevancy and personality of the hosts, with the best of audio streaming (on demand, personalised playing and discovery).

The first one flopped big time, because Skippy and The Intruders (1969) was set in Mallacoota and was about underwater divers (Rule number one: never stray too far away from your original concept). When the ABC refused to turn Bellbird into a film, former cast members made their own called Country Town (1971) and with a budget of just $70,000, it did pretty good business in regional areas (Rule number two: know who your audience is).

Miss Fisher knows exactly who her audience is, because they helped crowd fund this movie. On its opening day, the first session I went to was packed and the crowd, all of a certain age, giggled with delight throughout. Never mind that the entire supporting cast were left behind in Melbourne, because there was still a mystery to be solved and a romance to be had.

We have come a long way since Are You Being Served (1977) was filmed entirely in a UK soundstage, despite being the movie being set in Spain’s Costa Plonka. Now we have The Inbetweeners 2 (2014) filming at the Gold Coast and Byron Bay, while Kath and Kimderella (2012) based themselves in Positano, Italy.

Miss Fisher filmed on location in Morocco and Melbourne, and the result is the Arabian Knights crossed with a downmarket Downton Abbey. It cost $8 million to make, meaning her international fanbase is key to its success (Rule number three: If you want to make a profit, give them something they can’t see on TV).

That final rule is open to interpretation. The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course (2002) repeated the same schtick from their TV series, threw in a woeful subplot, and somehow made $33 million at the box office on a budget of $12 million. At the other end of the budget scale though, Number 96 (1974) cost only $100,000 and made over $5 million, while Fat Pizza (2003) cost $400,000 but went on to make $7 million.

Miss Fisher doesn’t offer full frontal nudity or fast cars, but it does have exotic locations and multiple costume changes. Whether that will be enough for a sequel and trilogy, is up to the audience paying hard cash for something nonsensical they can see for free at home.

Seven has managed to win its first night of week 9 and push its primary share close to 20%. Seven also had the biggest combined channel share. Driving the Seven result and helping lift share week-on-week and in the timeslot was the launch of Pooch Perfect. The show received a mixed reception from critics. Host Rebel Wilson said at the start of the episode “at last a show about dog grooming” and many of the potential audience agreed. The episode did 624,000 to win its timeslot. It outperformed any episodes of My Kitchen Rules this week, although the Pooches weren’t competing against MAFS.

Earlier on Seven, Home and Away ended its week on 635,000.

With no MAFS in the schedule, Nine’s Thursday can’t match the performance for the rest of the week.

A Current Affair dipped under 600,000 at 7pm.

An hour of RBT then did 411,000, with the Thursday movie Equalizer on 254,000.

The return of Gogglebox gave 10 its best primary share since mid-January. The show ranked #1 in key demos last night, won its timeslot and was #1 non-news on Thursday.

Earlier in the night The Project dipped below 400,000 after 7pm.

At 7.30pm Ambulance Australia was on 412,000 after 463,000 a week ago.

The ABC’s best after News and 7.30was a QI repeat on 233,000. Doctor Who did 221,000 at 8pm as the channel’s share dipped into single figures for the third time this month. Two of those nights were Thursdays.

On SBS Britain’s Most Historic Towns saw host Alice Robert spoking about Tudor Norwich with 206,000 watching.

A repeat of Secrets of Selfridges then did 207,000.