Triple M Brisbane‘s The Big Breakfast has undergone a fair few line-up changes in recent years with the arrivals and departures of Lawrence Mooney, Robin Baily, and Nick Cody. But the program is now beginning to look settled with mainstay Greg ‘Marto’ Martin being paired with Margaux Parker who joined in 2019.

Mediaweek caught up with the pair to talk about their first year as a duo following the departure of Cody, and what the Brisbane market wants from a radio show.

Parker: “Marto and The Big Breakfast is my first dive into brekkie radio, but I’m really loving it. I feel like Marto and I have settled into a bit of a groove. For me, it’s been only one change with Nick Cody leaving but Marto has been a stalwart of the show.”

Martin is a mainstay of Brisbane radio and said that there is one key ingredient to making a good program in the market.

Martin: “You need to actually be from Brisbane to be on Brisbane radio. Unfortunately, they’ve used me as a training academy and just ship people through here and if they survive my vile and wicked sense of humour they then go down to Melbourne or Sydney and run radio shows down there.

“Margaux and I have been together for nearly two years and the chemistry is incredible. You can’t just go he was funny on Have You Been Paying Attention? or one of those TV shows. You can be as funny as you like on that, but until you work with another person and see how your personalities rotate around each other you have no idea. Some of the funniest people work together and then they can’t work together because the chemistry doesn’t work.

“We are authentic, we aren’t radio stars. Margaux has four kids and I’ve had 20 years as a carpenter and builder – we appreciate the real things, not like these people that go into radio when they are 15 years of age and have no idea. They are like politicians who have never had a job, check out how many radio people you know who never had a job.”

The other factor that the pair think has worked in their favour is they have been able to record the show together in the studio over the last two years with Brisbane not being as affected by the pandemic as Sydney and Melbourne.

Margaux: “The thing is that we’re in the studio here together, you find a lot of the time people are in different states or cities or towns. But the banter and the momentum of the conversation is really important, especially in radio.”

Marto: “People will pretend that zoom works, it doesn’t work, I call pooey poo on that. Person to person, eye details and facial expressions are so important and you can bullshit all you like on zoom, but it doesn’t work. This works face to face. You can’t be zooming people in from Melbourne and Sydney.”

A driving force of the show has been its local focus which the pair agrees is a vital part of Brisbane radio.

Margaux: “People like local, they like that it is live, and they like that they’re getting traffic news on hand as it’s happening. We’ll stop our show to address anything that is local that people are experiencing then and now. That’s what radio is about, accessing information as soon as they can get their hands on it because there’s this constant need for wanting info and we’re able to deliver that to them. They just want to hear about other Brisbane people and what Brisbane people are doing.”

Martin: “We are at the tipping point right now size wise. Sydney people and Melbourne people are parochial but no one could possibly mention their suburb enough times. We’re just at the size now, where you can still say local and if you mentioned one suburb, if they’re the next suburb they will feel a part of it. Brisbane is at the right size before it moves on and becomes too bloody big.”

Examples of the local engagement that the show has had with the region range from small weekly events like shouting beers to larger community projects.

Martin: “Wednesday we do a smoko shout, Thursday we do a shout at a different pub every week. If you buy 50 people a beer on a Thursday it’s the rule of 10, those people will tell 10 people and they won’t say you are a dickhead, they will say that you were there. That is not possible in Sydney or Melbourne they couldn’t give a stuff.”

One of the large projects was Ollie’s place which was done for the young Ollie (Olive) Schmidt, where after months of planning and four weeks of building, Ollie’s place was revealed with a new padded deck and safe area.

Margaux: “We got a family involved, who had a daughter with a severe disability. With Ollie’s place, we built a space for her and we engaged our incredible database of tradies and skilled people who listen to our show and are so very generous with their time, efforts, services and their labour that they came on board and we were able to build this incredible space for this young girl who was in need.”

Martin: “Our people are useful people they don’t go here is $20. They want to do something that feels better than a tax deduction. They got the greatest feeling and went home to their partners and saw it on the tele and said that’s what we did.”

Foxtel has announced a fifth season of The Great Australian Bake-Off coming to the Lifestyle channel. This will be the first series to be produced by BBC Studios who take over from Fremantle who made the first four seasons.

After a year where local productions were slowed by Covid, Lifestyle ramped up production during the months when Australia was open earlier this year. The first of those productions to hit the screen is new Love It Or List It from Beyond which launched this week.

The Great Australian Bake Off is a BBC Studios production in Australia, based on a format created by Love Productions and licensed by BBC Studios distribution.

Lifestyle and Arena group general manager Wendy Moore told Mediaweek: “With local production capabilities here, BBC Studios was very keen to take it on. They love the format and really get it. Every meeting we had with them initially was reassuring that they understood what made it work.”

Fremantle continues to work with Lifestyle on Grand Designs Australia and the company does scripted work for Foxtel’s executive director of television Brian Walsh.

Kylie Washington, general manager and creative director, production, BBC Studios ANZ, said: “I’m excited to be producing this incredible show for Australian audiences. There’s something about the combination of cake and feel-good entertainment that has proved a winning recipe both here and around the world. We have found the next lot of talented local bakers who will amaze and inspire with their creations.”

Moore said Covid impacts a format like Bake-Off less than other productions. “It is a fixed location with the same crew and contestants working every day. It is much easier to control with Covid protocols and we use rapid antigen testing.”

Moore has visited the production since it started and met with the returning cast – judges Maggie Beer and Matt Moran and the hosts Claire Hooper and Mel Buttle.

Maggie Beer said of the new series which will premiere in 2022: “How exciting that all the gang is back for Bake Off. It’s such a special show where the contestants not only dazzle me with their love of baking, but they are so open to continually learn and to help each other. It’s a real joy to be involved.”

Return of Selling Houses Australia

In addition to overseeing a busy production slate, Moore is back on screen for Foxtel. After many years as a judge on Seven’s House Rules, she has replaced Shaynna Blaze as the interior design expert on Selling Houses Australia.

This series too is returning to Foxtel after a change of production house – Warner Bros International Television Productions (WBITVP) has replaced Beyond.

When Mediaweek spoke with Moore this week she was on location in Sydney working on a new episode. Remarkably this is the 14th season of Selling Houses Australia. When the 10 new episodes make it to air in 2022 it will have been two years between seasons.

“It’s been a harder challenge making Selling Houses because of the border crossings,” explained Moore. “We were lucky we got some interstate episodes done in the early part of the year. We have also tried to do some houses relatively close to each other when we were locked down which made it easier for the crew to move between them.”

While Andrew Winter remains the program’s host, joining Moore on air this season is the new landscape designer Dennis Scott replacing Charlie Albone. “This is his first time on TV, but you wouldn’t know it,” said Moore. “The audience is going to love him. He’s really good at what he does and he gives Andrew a bit of stick which is always good to watch.” [Laughs]

Great Australian Bake-Off just one of many new series

While much of the recent growth at Foxtel has been on the streaming platforms Binge and Kayo, Moore noted that most of the Foxtel Group Originals remain exclusively for Foxtel subscribers. At least for now. “A lot of our Lifestyle series are on Binge, but not the local productions,” said Moore.

Other shows now being worked on or coming soon include Selling in the City, The Repair Shop, Deborah Hutton hosting Find Me a Dream Home which is wrapping production, Gogglebox and Celebrity Gogglebox plus the new season of Real Housewives of Melbourne.

The new season of Love It Or List It managed to negotiate border crossings earlier this year and the first episode in Melbourne again features some great renovation work from Neale Whitaker, although Andrew Winter managed to find some tempting new properties for the owners to consider.

See also: Foxtel announces new presenters for Selling Houses Australia season 14

In a new partnership with Similarweb, Mediaweek is now able to give insights into the traffic going to Australia’s 20 biggest news websites.

The partnership started last month with our first list of the total number of duplicated visitors going to the most popular news websites in Australia.

The numbers are very different to what has been available in the market previously. The Similarweb numbers are for total non-unique visits.

Similarweb data is used by some of the world’s biggest brands and the company has a team of 800 people with offices on six continents and is now publicly traded on the NYSE.

The new data continues to confirm that the ABC via abc.net.au and news.com.au are by far the biggest generators of news traffic in Australia. For the month of August 2021 the ABC maintained a clear lead ahead of news.com.au.

Nine Entrainment Co-owned sites again have three of the top six places with 9News.com.au, smh.com.au and theage.com.au. The appearance of afr.com in the top 10 gives Nine a fourth player in the top 10.

News Corp Australia has five of its news websites ranked between 11-20 with the Herald Sun site just outranking Perth Now. The Australian website is not far behind, and ahead of The Courier-Mail and The Daily Telegraph.

New to the Australian Top 20 this month is The Canberra Times with an August total visits number over 5.5m, narrowly ahead of The Daily Telegraph.

The chart of Top Global News websites shows the most powerful news brands and how both the ABC and news.com.au have muscled their way onto the chart.

The power of the BBC brand is evident with two of the top three global places going to the British-based worldwide publisher.

The data for the Australian chart tracks visits from within Australia. The visits on the Global News Sites chart is for visits from all countries.

See also: Top News sites July 2021: ABC and news.com.au lead market

Squid Game is about to take over the streaming TV world.

At a US media conference this week, Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-CEO and chief content officer, has revealed in a couple of presentation slides the streaming platform’s biggest ever TV series and movies.

Speaking at Vox Media’s Code Conference in Los Angeles, the slides indicated the most popular Netflix shows using Netflix data based on the number of accounts that selected a title in the first 28 days of release (and streamed for at least two minutes).

Sarandos also shares the total time spent viewing within that 28-day window which apparently is a metric that Netflix has not shared publicly before.

As he was speaking about the data on the charts, Sarandos noted the new Korean survival drama Squid Game has a good chance of becoming the most-watched Netflix TV series ever.

Squid Game currently ranks #1 globally for Netflix with Sarandos saying: “We did not see that coming, in terms of its global popularity.”

Most sampled Netflix shows

Bridgerton (82 million)
Lupin season 1 (76 million)
The Witcher season 1 (76 million)
Sex/Life season 1 (67 million)
Stranger Things season 3 (67 million)
Money Heist Part 4 (65 million)
Tiger King (64 million)
The Queen’s Gambit (62 million)
Sweet Tooth season 1 (60 million)
Emily in Paris season 1 (58 million)

Most sampled Netflix movies

Extraction (99 million)
Bird Box (89 million)
Spenser Confidential (85 million)
6 Underground (83 million)
Murder Mystery (83 million)
The Old Guard (78 million)
Enola Holmes (77 million)
Project Power (75 million)
Army of the Dead (75 million)
Fatherhood (74 million)

Most watched Netflix shows by hours

Bridgerton (625 million hours)
Money Heist Part 4 (619 million hours)
Stranger Things season 3 (582 million hours)
The Witcher season 1 (541 million hours)
13 Reasons Why season 2 (496 million hours)
You season 2 (457 million hours)
Stranger Things season 2 (427 million hours)
Money Heist Part 3 (426 million hours)
Ginny & Georgia season 1 (381 million hours)

Most watched Netflix movies by hours

Bird Box (282 million hours)
Extraction (231 million hours)
The Irishman (215 million hours)
The Kissing Booth 2 (209 million hours)
6 Underground (205 million hours)
Spenser Confidential (197 million hours)
Enola Holmes (190 million hours)
Army of the Dead (187 million hours)
The Old Guard (186 million hours)
Murder Mystery (170 million hours)

See also: Mediaweek’s Top 10 streaming platforms: How can Netflix not be #1?

The ACCC has released its final report on the Digital Advertising Services Inquiry, more than 18 months after the government first initiated the inquiry.

The major focus is on the dominance that Google has in the space – with the report noting that “In 2020, we estimate that over 90% of ad impressions traded via the ad tech supply chain passed through at least one Google service.” The report also says that the ACCC is examining a number of allegations regarding Google’s behaviour that has lessened competition over time. 

In response to the issue, the ACCC has recommended that it be given powers that allow it to address conflicts of interest, prevent anti-competitive self-referencing behaviour, address data advantage issues, and transparency problems, where these create efficiency or competition concerns.

The ACCC has also acknowledged that it has previously identified similar concerns with online search, social media, and app marketplace services. These will be addressed in the September 2022 report for the Digital Platform Services Inquiry.

Upon the release of the report Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia, said: “Ad funded digital media and services, supported by the ad tech sector, perform a critical role in the digital economy.  The ACCC’s detailed Digital Advertising Services Inquiry Report has implications for many aspects of the ad tech sector and the IAB looks forward to working constructively on behalf of the industry with Government on the key issues it raises and to continue to build confidence across the ad tech ecosystem.

 “The digital advertising industry is focused on ensuring advertising technologies prioritise consumer privacy and accountability in the development of targeting, measurement, and attribution solutions. We recognise the critical importance of transparency across the Australian ad tech supply chain and are actively working to develop measures that work for advertisers and publishers, as well as consumers.”

The report comes after the Media Code laws were finalised earlier this year that saw Google and Facebook made to pay news outlets for their content.

Australian football has revealed its new identity, with the men’s, women’s and youth leagues brought together under a unified “A-Leagues” banner.

Recasting the men’s and women’s elite competitions as partners at the top of the game, the A-Leagues will use football’s position as the country’s most inclusive sport to grow the game for everyone.

As part of the change, the A-Leagues will move to a unified social media channel for men’s and women’s football on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok in the coming months and will re-launch a new A-Leagues website, creating a single destination for fans of professional football in Australia and significantly increasing the profile and reach of women’s football.

The reveal of the new brand is the latest in a series of announcements since the A-Leagues took over the running of the professional game in December 2020, including: the expansion of the women’s league by three teams in two years; the launch of a new Club Championship to bring the men’s and women’s leagues closer together; and an historic Collective Bargaining Agreement to drive up standards and bring genuine equity to the game.

The A-Leagues will continue to showcase the best in emerging Australian talent, from leagues featuring unparalleled numbers of emerging stars – several of whom have already played central roles at the Olympics after making headlines on the domestic stage last season.

Danny Townsend, managing director, said the new A-Leagues brand has a simple idea at its core.

“It’s not men’s football, or women’s football, it’s just football,” he said. “We’re committed to growing the game in Australia – for everyone. That means delivering a world-class experience on and off the pitch and inspiring the next- generation of A-Leagues superstars to fulfil their highest potential. This is just the beginning of our ambitious, long- term vision for the growth of football in Australia.”

Ant Hearne, chief commercial officer, said:

“We know our fans live and breathe football so we want to create the best possible experience in the stadium, at home, on the move, through gaming or fashion or food – however fans want to connect with football, we will deliver.”

The new A-Leagues 2021-22 season will kick off on November 19 for A-League Men and December 3 for A-League Women.

10 has searched high and low for some of the country’s top celebrities with a passion for food, and are ready for their big break in the MasterChef kitchen. They may be the best in their business, but will they be the best in the kitchen?

Get ready for a season of fun and kitchen chaos when actors Rebecca Gibney and Matt Le Nevez, fashion designer Collette Dinnigan, Olympic great Ian Thorpe, singer Dami Im, radio host Chrissie Swan, comedian Dilruk Jayasinha, British TV presenter Tilly Ramsay, as well as football giants from their respective codes, Archie Thompson and Nick Riewoldt don the MasterChef apron to cook for the coveted Celebrity MasterChef trophy.    

These celebrities will step out of their world and into the MasterChef kitchen when the series premieres on Sunday, 10 October at 7.30pm on 10. 

Joining MasterChef judges, Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Jock Zonfrillo are local and international guest chefs including Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal, Curtis Stone and Martin Benn who will set challenges which will both delight and push the celebrities to the edge of their comfort zones.   

Andy Allen said: “Melissa, Jock, and I can’t wait to swing open the doors to the MasterChef kitchen and welcome these famous faces. It’ll be a multi-talented group who step into the kitchen, but will they be at the top of their cooking game?”

This year, The second night of the MasterChef Grand Finale had 824,000 viewers as Justin Narayan was named the winner of the 2021 iteration of the show. 931,000 tuned in for the announcement of the winner as the show was the top non-news program of the evening and was #1 in all key demos.

In the finale Peter Gilmore, the master of grand finale pressure tests was on hand with 80 points up for grabs.

Celebrity MasterChef Australia is produced by Endemol Shine Australia.

Native content network, Avid Collective has announced the appointment of nine new staff to the company’s Sydney team.

The new hires include:

Robert Ewing joins as a senior commercial manager to focus on Avid’s agency partnerships. He was previously with oOh!, where he was a business manager for more than two years and also spent nearly five years at Mindshare, with his last two in its Integrated Partnerships team.

Tessa Coulter joins as a senior commercial manager to focus on Avid’s travel, tourism and entertainment partnerships. Previously Coulter was at Ticketek/TEG, with her last role as the digital & partnerships sales director for APAC.

Gray Roberts joins as a senior commercial manager to focus on Avid’s Retail partnerships. Previously Roberts was the chief commercial officer for the National Online Retailers Association, was ANZ sales manager at Uber and a retail sales manager at Groupon.

Ashleigh Pitcher joins as a senior campaign manager to lead Avid’s native content campaign executions across both agency and direct clients. Previously Pitcher was the strategy and planning director at boutique performance agency, Ambire.

Madeline Spicer joins as a campaign and strategy manager, reporting to Pitcher and working on client campaigns as well as the development of strategies supporting the new business team. Spicer joins from Group M agency Xaxis, where she was a senior client success executive.

Additional hires include Alessandra Allegretti, Veena Chandar and Kim Tran as content editors, working as writers for Avid’s seven owned media brands, and Samantha Callery as a business development executive, working on supporting the entire commercial partnerships team.

Avid Collective managing director and co-founder, Luke Spano, said the appointments position the company well for even greater growth.

“These hires are a reflection of the significant growth we’ve been able to achieve in the last 12 months. We’ve taken remarkable strides in both extensively growing our media network and expanding the advertising partners we work with. A huge congratulations to the entire team and we are so excited to welcome such exceptional talent into the business,” he said.

Taking out the top spot on all four charts this week is Ted Lasso, coming straight off the back of the show’s big win at the Emmys. Ted Lasso took home some big wins including Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Jason Sudeikis and Best Comedy Series.

This year The Crown and The Mandalorian tied for the top spot for program Emmy Awards nominations with 24 followed by WandaVision (23), The Handmaid’s Tale (21), Saturday Night Live (21), Ted Lasso (20), Lovecraft Country (18), The Queen’s Gambit (18) and Mare of Easttown (16).

Ted Lasso from Apple TV+ was the biggest-winning comedy overall, but other shows picking up multiple wins were Mare of Easttown, Hacks and The Queen’s Gambit.

This week Ted Lasso scored 29.76 points above market average in Australia and 20.45 in New Zealand. 

See More: Emmy Awards 2021 winners and nomination list: Ted Lasso, The Crown win big

Nine Perfect Strangers came in second on both Digital Original charts this week.

Set at a boutique health-and-wellness resort that promises healing and transformation, nine stressed city dwellers try to get on a path to a better way of living. Watching over them during this ten-day retreat is the resort’s director Masha (Nicole Kidman), a woman on a mission to reinvigorate their tired minds and bodies. However, these nine strangers have no idea what is about to hit them.

This week Nine Perfect Strangers scored 22.39 points above market average in Australia and 19.51 in New Zealand. 

Only Murders In The Building is creeping up the charts this week. The show follows three strangers (played by Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez) who share an obsession with a true-crime podcast. When there is a murder in their building, the neighbors start their own show while they investigate the crime themselves. 

This week Only Murders In The Building scored 17.26 points above market average in Australia and 11.43 in New Zealand. 

Total TV Ratings for September 21, 2021

The Block was the top non-news show in the total TV ratings for September 21. The episode had 1.431m viewers with an increase of 22% on its overnight figures. The episode featured a lip sync battle with the performances judged by Delta Goodrem and Shaynna Blaze.

Home and Away was the top non-news show for Seven with 1.174m (up 19%), followed closely by SAS Australia with 1.174m (up 37%). 

The Masked Singer had an average audience of 929,000 after an increase of 19%. The reveal that Mahalia Barnes was the celebrity behind the pavlova costume had 1.007m viewers.

The Hundred with Andy Lee was up 10% bringing the total audience to 752,000. The featured Mike Goldstein, Jean Kittson, and Dane Simpson.

September 28 Overnight TV Ratings

Primetime News
Seven News 1,094,000/1,067,000
Nine News 967,000/957,000
ABC News 693,000
10 News First 376,000 (5:00pm)/ 241,000 (6:00pm)
SBS World News 189,000 (6:30pm) 153,000 (7:00pm)

Daily current affairs
A Current Affair 802,000
7.30 518,000
The Project 299,000 (6:30pm)/495,000 (7:00pm)
The Drum 185,000

Breakfast TV
Sunrise 247,000
Today 240,000
News Breakfast 209,000

Late News
Nine News 171,000
ABC Late News 105,000
The Latest 93,000

Nine

Nine continues its strong week with another weekday win by being the top primary channel with 22.7% and the top network with 30.7%.

The Block was once again the top non-news program of the night with 840,000 viewers and was also  #1 in all key demographics. The episode was down on last week’s audience of 855,000.

At the Domain Listings challenge, the teams competed for the best video presentation of their house with the winner receiving $10,000 and three bonus points on the Domain Superpower Leaderboard.

Ronnie and Georgia were the winners of the challenge. They impressed the Domain judges with the lifestyle and luxury the house offers buyers. 

Buyers’ advocates Frank Valenti, Nicole Jacobs and Greville Pabst were in attendance to get a sneak peek of what will be available on auction day.

The Hundred with Andy Lee then followed with 459,000, which was down on last week’s season high of  505,000. The episode was the season finale and featured Karl Stefanovic, Becky Lucas, and Mike Goldstein.

A repeat of Travel Guides then took 293,000 viewers to Italy. 

Seven

Home and Away had 604,000 viewers last night and was the top non-news program on Seven.

SAS Australia then followed with 592,000. In last night’s episode, all the recruits managed to remain on the show after being tested on confidence and commitment.

In the first task, recruits had to fall backwards from a 10-metre high platform, entering a murky pool of water head-first and vertical. Recruits then performed in a team against team recovery patrol, carrying or dragging three 50 kilogram tyres along a six-kilometre bush track. The episode also featured an honesty test as recruits were asked to share their deepest, darkest secrets with each other. Jett Kenny revealed he sets high standards for himself and struggles with feelings of never feeling good enough, before admitting he regrets not being there more for his late sister Jaimi.

The episode was up on last week’s 586,000 viewers.

Afterwards, Australia: Now and Then returned from a brief hiatus with 284,000 viewers. The episode covered which generation was the toughest.

10

The Project had 299,000 (6:30pm) and 495,000 (7:00pm) as the show covered the Covid-19 scare in Brisbane and which vaccine had the longest period of effectiveness. 

The Masked Singer had an average audience of 545,000 and then 653,000 as the show revealed that Ella Hooper was the celebrity inside the giant baby costume.

Despite her rendition of The Backstreet Boys hit As Long As You Love Me, she was outdone by Dolly’s take on Supaloney by Benee featuring Gus Dapperton.

The average audience of The Masked Singer was down on last Tuesday’s 573,000, while the reveals were roughly the same.

The Cheap Seats then followed with 326,000 viewers.

ABC

Back to Nature had 288,000 viewers as it went to Arrernte country in Central Australia. 

The School That Tried to End Racism then followed with 254,000 for its second episode, down slightly on its premiere of 256,000.

SBS

The top program on SBS was a repeat of Great American Railroad Journeys with 239,000 viewers.