#5 Drake with “God’s Plan”
#18 Rudimental with “These Days”
#42 The Chainsmokers with “Sick Boy”
#46 Kylie Minogue with “Dancing”
#47 Keith Urban with “Parallel Line”
Five album debuts in the top 50 too, but all of them managed to crack the top 30.
At the top of the chart The Greatest Showman soundtrack holds at #1 for a fourth consecutive week while Ed Sheeran is omnipresent at #2.
The new arrivals start with the only top 10 debut:
#3 Fall Out Boy with “Mania” – the band’s fifth top 10 album debut and second best after “Save Rock And Roll” sat at #2 in 2013.
#13 First Aid Kit with “Ruins” – the second-best chart spot for Swedish folk duo after “Stay Gold” hit #9 in 2014.
#26 Missy Lancaster with “Piece Of Me”
#29 Of Mice & Men with “Defy”
#30 Black Label Society with “Grimmest Hits”
Currently touring Australia, Foo Fighters shot back up to #11 with “Greatest Hits”, which has been charting for 211 weeks.
When asked is this amplifying what the channel is already doing, or instead a change of strategy, ABC news division managing editor of television and video Tim Ayliffe told Mediaweek: “It is doubling down on what we have been doing. It is reviewing the focus on the idea that facts matter. With the News channel we have a real opportunity and a responsibility to bring the major news stories of the day and cover all stories, moving outside of the big cities, covering the stories that reflect modern Australia, speaking to all sorts of Australians, not just the usual suspects.”
The channel, and the broader ABC, has plenty of critics branding them as lefties, how do Ayliffe and his colleagues feel about the labels they are given? “We will leave opinion journalism for others. We will tell a story straight and focus on the facts.”
• The revised programming sees an extra 15 minutes of The Drum, which screens on the ABC primary channel at 5.15pm and then is replayed on ABC News at 6.15pm.
• From 7pm Karina Carvalho is the main evening anchor, returning to the channel from her role as Queensland newsreader for the past five years.
• The headline act is really the arrival of Stan Grant at 9pm with Matter Of Fact. The schedule means the broadcaster will offer two different daily takes on news and current affairs at that time – Tonightly with Tom Ballard on ABC Comedy and also Grant’s show. Both of them of course go up against the most-watched program on Sky News – Paul Murray Live. Ayliffe said: “Stan brings with him more than a decade of experience reporting from overseas including time in war zones for CNN. He is a well-rounded reporter and interviewer. The idea of the program is something I have been discussing with him and Gaven Morris. We wanted to do something that goes direct to the heart of a big story. As the title indicates it will all be about the facts and that facts matter.”
• The daily business show has moved to 9.45pm. Ayliffe told Mediaweek he thought it would do best at that time of night and attract a bigger audience. “We had it in the 8pm hour previously and we want more people seeing some of the big interviews we manage to get.”
• At 10pm is a new-look The World hosted by Beverley O’Connor followed by a national news hour from the Melbourne studios at 11pm with Yvonne Yong.
“We are looking at doing more programming out of Melbourne and we are doing some late evening programming out of Perth as well,” said Ayliffe.
He also noted national politics will remain a focus with Andrew Probyn, Greg Jennett and the political team in Canberra.
Another new signing and a person familiar to Sky News viewers and ABC radio National listeners is Patricia Karvelas, who is hosting Sunday night’s 9pm National Wrap with a focus on federal politics.
When asked what programs perform well for ABC News, Ayliffe made special mention of The Drum, Planet America (now 45 minutes at 9pm Friday) and The World. “ABC News breakfast also of course works well for us.
“What we are trying to do with the new schedule is make the channel a real destination for viewers in primetime.”
While the channel has a fairly serious image, Ayliffe noted they wanted to bring the conversation to topics that are affecting all people’s lives. “That includes positive news stories and we are interested in also having a laugh when we can.”
Speaking via phone between business meetings, Sneesby reminded Mediaweek the original business plans for a category that didn’t exist at that time were quite ambitious. “Those ambitions have now grown almost every year and the bar for our long-term goal has got higher and higher.
“We have had another huge year of growth for the Stan business.”
He said Stan is in a good place as it starts its fourth year.
“It’s quite phenomenal what Stan has achieved and the category itself has absolutely boomed over that period of time.
“It has been a fantastic journey for me and I’m sure I speak on behalf of the team at Stan. We often reflect on the achievements in both the last 12 months and the past three years. It has been a very exciting journey.
“From a shareholder point of view, they have never been as bullish about the category.”
Sneesby stopped short of revealing too much about the past 12 months and forward plans, saving that for shareholders Fairfax Media and Nine Entertainment to tell shareholders when they report in February.
Stan had promised to be cash positive some time in 2018 and, after what Sneesby called a “fantastic summer”, that seems to be getting closer.
When asked about highlights so far, Sneesby recalled the high targets Stan set itself. “And the shareholders were so willing to buy into those targets and make the required investment. That was a really critical part of setting this business up for success.
“Making the decision to move into original productions very early in the piece was a bold step that has paid off.
“The originals we premiered over summer – Romper Stomper and Wolf Creek – have been fantastic for us. There is no way we would have been in a position to create original productions like this at this point without shareholder support.”
Sneesby also highlighted the number of deals done with major studios. “We have done a series of big deals with Hollywood studios that have delivered a number of big hits for the platform.
“More of that output is coming to Stan than anywhere else and we have established ourselves as the home of the best Hollywood programming.
“An important contribution to that was the Showtime output deal.”
A more recent deal was a tie-up with NBC which included the return of Will & Grace, which Sneesby branded “a smash hit”.
Other series that do good business for the platform include Better Call Saul and Billions. Sneesby also mentioned the forthcoming NBC musical drama Rise from the makers of the popular Friday Night Lights.
Romper Stomper is in the Stan record books for breaking “all sorts of records”. It set new highs for biggest first day and biggest first week for an Australian original.
In terms of mass audiences, franchises with big libraries with hundreds of episodes perform best – Friendsand Seinfeld. “Classic shows consume a lot of hours because they have broad audience appeal.
“Just recently we have added Parks and Rec to the platform and more recently we have added The Office.
With Reed Hastings and Netflix bullish about movies, Sneesby reminded Mediaweek that Stan too is in the midst of production of its first film. “Later this year we will be releasing the second.” The first Stan movie will star Rachael Blake and Vince Colosimo.
“More feature films are on the cards, but it is television series that continue to drive most of our viewing. TV series will continue to dominate the lineup.”
While Sneesby was careful not to reveal who he was meeting with in LA, the business is pursuing strategic opportunities for new content and could continue to invest directly in content commissions from outside of Australia, something it has dabbled in previously.
Supersizing the fourth season of the show to run for 29 episodes in 2017 was “a huge challenge”, McWilliams told Mediaweek at a recent media screening of the first two episodes from the 2018 season. “There was huge amount of pressure to get it right. You only get one chance at it.”
In 2016, season 3 had only eight episodes. Giving the show 21 more episodes to run last year was a gamble. However, it proved to be a successful one for all parties involved, creating conversations on social media and consistently delivering good numbers in the overnight ratings for Nine.
Season 4 of Married At First Sight was the first time McWilliams had served on the franchise as its EP. The show’s success last year has made her more confident about season 5. “We know it works now,” she said. “Last year, it reached way more people than we’d expected.”
The first two episodes from the new season received a positive reaction from the members of the media who attended the screening event at Nine’s Willoughby office in mid-January. This gave McWilliams further assurance that the audience will warm to the participants and the stories just as they did last year. When Mediaweek spoke to her at the end of the screening, she was at ease. While she is confident about the new season, she also confessed there is a lot pressure. “It has to work. We are not contemplating the alternative. There is pressure to remain successful and for it to keep wowing the audience.
“Everyone here oohed and aahed at the exact times that I wanted the audience to. The show is also funny. I loved that people were laughing with the characters and not at them.”
The 2017 season of Married At First Sight Australia featured many memorable characters like Cheryl Maitland, Andrew Jones and Anthony Manton, who drove conversations around the franchise among viewers and media. The upcoming season “has much bigger characters and personalities”, McWilliams said. “However, it is important to point out this doesn’t mean they are less sincere or genuine about the process. In fact, I found out contributors were more invested in the experiment this series. This is perhaps because they knew what they were getting into.”
Reality dating show fans are in for a treat this year with a plethora of such shows coming to TV. Married At First Sight is the first one off the bench. Then there are also Nine’s Love Island, Seven’s First Dates and Ten’s Bachelor in Paradise, The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.
“There is always a concern too much of one genre will make the audience tired of it and they will start to drop off,” McWilliams said. “But Married is very different from the other ones.
SUNDAY METRO | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven | Nine | Ten | SBS | |||||
ABC | 6.4% | 7 | 36.7% | 9 | 19.1% | TEN | 16.8% | SBS One | 3.7% |
ABC 2 | 1.7% | 7TWO | 2.7% | GO! | 1.8% | ONE | 1.4% | VICELAND | 0.5% |
ABC ME | 0.8% | 7mate | 2.0% | GEM | 0.9% | ELEVEN | 1.2% | Food Net | 0.5% |
NEWS 24 | 0.6% | 7flix | 1.5% | 9Life | 1.7% | NITV | 0.1% | ||
TOTAL | 9.5% | 42.8% | 23.4% | 19.4% | 4.8% |
SUNDAY REGIONAL | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ABC | Seven Affiliates | Nine Affiliates | Ten Affiliates | SBS | |||||
ABC | 7.4% | 7 | 31.1% | 9 | 19.9% | WIN | 14.3% | SBS One | 4.0% |
ABC 2 | 2.1% | 7TWO | 3.6% | GO! | 2.4% | ONE | 1.3% | VICELAND | 0.6% |
ABC ME | 1.4% | 7mate | 3.0% | GEM | 2.1% | ELEVEN | 1.1% | Food Net | 0.9% |
NEWS 24 | 0.7% | 7flix | 1.8% | 9Life | 2.3% | NITV | 0.2% | ||
TOTAL | 11.6% | 39.5% | 26.7% | 16.7% | 5.7% |
SUNDAY METRO ALL TV | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FTA | STV | ||||||||
90.1% | 9.9% |
Shares all people, 6pm-midnight, Overnight (Live and AsLive), Audience numbers FTA metro, Sub TV national
Source: OzTAM and Regional TAM 2018. The Data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) without the prior written consent of OzTAM
Friday Top 10
Saturday Top 10
With the year featuring some major sporting events in the first few months, getting momentum whenever and whereever you can will be crucial.
The channel and the network dominated the start of the unofficial ratings year. However, the numbers weren’t quite as big as last year when it comes to measuring traditional TV viewing.
The 2017 Australian Open men’s final did 2.66m compared to last night’s 1.73m.
The digital audience watching the final day of the tournament consumed 10.6m streaming minutes, which was up 5% on the same day last year.
Seven’s metro TV share was down year-on-year for the same night. In 2017 that number was a massive primary share of 50.6% and a network share of 54.5%.
Last night the metro primary share was 36.7% with a combined channel network share of 42.8%.
The final One Day International between Australia and England saw Australia crumble as they failed to reach what was a modest target.
The audience for both sessions from the new Perth Stadium was just under 1m.
Nine did grow its share on this night last year though – primary share climbed from 12.4% to 19.1% YOY.
Although Seven and Nine had international live sporting events filling much of primetime, earlier in the night there was lots of interest in Lisa Wilkinson‘s debut on Network Ten and The Project.
Wilkinson’s colleagues on her first appearance on the Sunday edition of the daily current affairs show were Pete Helliar, Hamish Macdonald and Rachel Corbett.
The big guest was Jessica Chastain who is in Australia promoting Molly’s Game.
The first 30 minutes of The Project at 6.30pm was not up against news bulletins for a change with Seven and Nine both returning to their respective sporting events.
The Project did 587,000 after 7pm, which was the biggest audience ever for the Sunday edition of the show. The average across the hour was 536,000, with 481,000 at 6.30pm.
The launch of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here performed very strongly given the competition it always faces at the start of each series.
The show was divided into two segments for the ratings – Opening Night did 1.25m, which was up 14% YOY. Welcome To The Jungle did 1.11m, which was up 15% YOY.
Following the celebrities was the premiere of the new CBS drama Seal Team. The corrected figure for the launch episode was 483,000, which isn’t a bad number for a US drama (if we don’t include the numbers for The Good Doctor).
At the centre of this corporate supernova was the relationship between headline-prone, journo-turned-entrepreneur Catalano and one of the media industry’s great survivors, Domain’s hastily appointed new executive chairman Nick Falloon, who is also the chairman of the property-listing business’s biggest shareholder, Fairfax.
Friends say he had spectacularly fallen out with Falloon and that the now former Domain head was filthy with his chairman’s recruitment of former REA boss Greg Ellis to the property group’s board – a pointed reminder The Cat was replaceable.
Publisher Paper Riot Pty Ltd has gone into external administration, according to an ASIC filing, signalling the end for the magazine, which has a small staff based in Sydney.
Mediaweek reported on a Rolling Stone partnership with Pandora in April 2017.
At that time Mediaweek’s Kruti Joshi spoke with Rolling Stone Australia editor Rod Yates:
The magazine has witnessed many competitors come and go and withstood competition through time.
“Through the economic ups and downs where some titles or some things become expendable, Rolling Stone has always been one of those brands that people want to keep buying because it’s their passion,” Yates said. “There are other things built into that like online. We’ve only had a website for about four years since we became independent. When we were at Bauer there was no website. That’s a huge growth area for us.”
Matt Coyte currently publishes Rolling Stone Australia through his company Paper Riot. He is also the editor-in-chief of the brand. Coyte edited the title when it was housed under the Bauer Media banner. It left the German publisher’s stable in late 2013.
The Melbourne-based Bolt underwent surgery on his left wrist on Wednesday this week after the fall, which occurred while he was pruning a banksia tree.
3AW breakfast presenter John Burns has apologised on-air after revealing his licence was disqualified over a second drink-driving offence, reports Fairfax Media’s Rob Moran.
Stephen Beers, 3AW Operations Director, said he was “extremely disappointed” in Burns.
“3AW supports all efforts of Victoria Police and the TAC to improve road safety… To have one of our presenters exceed the limit is unacceptable,” he said in a statement.
He said the station would await the outcome of Burns’s court appearance – at this point set for March – before taking any “further action”.
Bruno and Laura Bouchet go head-to-head every day at work in an industry where there is no prize for coming second … then go home and share nappy-changing duties, reports The Sunday Telegraph in a feature about couples who work together.
Both are executive producers at the Australian Radio Network – Bruno calling the shots during the Kyle and Jackie O show on KIIS while Laura does the same thing for Jonesy and Amanda down the hall at WSFM.
Laura and Bruno have yet to work together on the same show – at least in radio. They did share writing duties on Sandilands’ television show Meet The Hockers, which aired on 9Go! last year.
Listen to Mediaweek’s 2017 podcast with the Bouchets here.
Stellar magazine has Lisa Wilkinson on the cover with a feature interview with Jordan Baker on the day she hosts the first edition of The Sunday Project for 2018:
“I’m going to approach this job in the way I’ve approached every other TV job I’ve had. I may be really good, I may be really bad, and I’m just about to find that out – along with the rest of Australia.”
Wilkinson admits to some sadness about the way things ended at Nine. “These things are always a learning curve. That’s also really good for you. TV can be shallow, there’s no headline news there, but the relationships that really matter to me are intact.”
She has no advice for her Today successor Georgie Gardner – “she did the show for five years, she doesn’t need advice from me” – and can’t promise to watch her, either. “It depends on whether I wake up in time.”
In a week where Shane Warne became the latest celebrity to hammer Bauer Media’s Woman’s Day, the former cricket star tells Fairfax Media’s Andrew Hornery: “It’s not fair that over the last few months I have had four totally made-up stories in that publication and they constantly attack my children,” he claimed.
“Last year they hammered Brooke, my eldest, and now [they are] attacking my parenting and my son, plus my son’s girlfriend – whose family are raging, asking what’s being done to protect her. All because these guys continually make shit up, it’s not right.”
Hutchison told Malthouse during the week he would no longer be needed in a special comments role on Saturday afternoons.
Aleks Devic profiles Hutchy’s business empire:
Just 10 years on from a pipe dream, the Crocmedia venture now makes 140 hours of radio weekly, and broadcasts to more than 200 stations nationally and in New Zealand.
It employs 100-plus full-time staff, 130 part-timers and scores of freelancers to service its 250 clients.
In the latest move, Hutchison’s Crocmedia will merge with Pacific Star Network, owner of sports radio station SEN.
Hutchison will be CEO as part of the $23.9 million stock-only deal.
Fiona Byrne covered the arrival of Gerard Whateley at SEN from January 29:
Whateley said he was intrigued but not looking for a change from the ABC when the initial call about SEN came from Crocmedia boss Craig Hutchison.
His ABC contract was due to expire on December 31 and the ABC had at that point not made a formal contract offer for a new term.
“A lot of people have asked me [why move to SEN] and I don’t have much better of an answer other than it is what I want to do and it is my decision to make.”
Meanwhile SEN has announced the Super Bowl will be broadcast live to Australian audiences on 1116 SEN, and simulcast on SEN’s digital platforms in Australia.
Gerard Whateley will be live at US Bank Stadium in Minnesota for NFL’s Super Bowl LII and will call all the play-by-play action from 10.30am on Monday February 5 (AEDT) on 1116 SEN and via the SEN website and app.
Whateley will also host a preview show the day before the big event.
The preview show will include insights and interviews with past and present players, expert commentators and influential figures to discuss and dissect all the key elements of Super Bowl LII, where the game will be won and lost and predict which team will hold the coveted Vince Lombardi Trophy aloft.
The preview show will air on 1116 SEN, website and app from 12pm on Sunday February 4 (AEDT).
Asked whether Murdoch’s proposal would improve the balance of the digital publisher ecosystem, Sir Martin told The Australian: “It’s one solution to the publishers’ dilemma and I thought that some progress had been made on the issue by European publishers, including News Corp at Turin and Google Camp last year.”
Marks said the present economic model was broken and needed “urgent attention”. If Facebook was serious about supporting “trusted content” and stopping the spread of fake news on its platform, he said, the tech giant should help “find a solution pretty quickly”.
“I am fully supportive of Rupert’s comments,” said Marks.
Lachlan Murdoch is the subject of more speculation in media circles than he ever was before, reports Bloomberg in an item republished in The AFR.
While his father, now 86, has groomed him for the top job, Lachlan has never independently run anything as big and complicated as what is being billed as the “new Fox”. He now seems all but certain to assume the helm after his brother, current Fox CEO James Murdoch, sees through a $US52.4 billion asset sale to Walt Disney over the next 12-18 months. The question – for the global media and investors alike – is what will happen then.
The monthly magazine will be mailed directly to 30,000 farmers and affiliates across the state, delivering the latest information, opinions and analysis to help participants in the agricultural industry meet the challenges that impact their lives, their businesses and the broader economy.
Medium Rare will provide content and media sales services to NSW Farmers across its magazine, web site, EDMs and social activities.
Content will be headed up by Michelle Endacott, formerly managing editor of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Media sales will be led by Ian Bellert, formerly national advertising manager, agriculture, at Fairfax Media.
“We are delighted to partner with NSW Farmers to create a high-quality publication that will meet the needs of its membership across a wide range of topics and industry sectors,” said Gerry Reynolds, managing director of Medium Rare.
“The magazine will deliver a mix of challenging, informative and human stories – from advances in innovation, supply chain and productivity through to labour, legislative and health matters – and its guaranteed circulation will make it an attractive proposition to advertisers wishing the engage with a high-spending readership.”
Newsagent and blogger Mark Fletcher is preparing his colleagues for a future without daily print products. He writes today:
Regardless of the spin from newspaper publishers, we are approaching the day when capital city and major regional daily newspapers will cease to be published daily.
As the largest single channel retailing print newspapers in Australia, small business newsagents need to be prepared for this. We need to ensure, today, that our businesses can sustain such a move.
This will happen. Daily newspapers will close. The decline in sales is driving it. The decline in advertising revenue makes it unavoidable.
The print model for news has run its race. The costs of printing the product and distributing it to shops and homes is too high.
In an investigation that has been under way from many months, actors and influencers have been named who purchased followers.
Many of the transactions were traced to an obscure American company named Devumi that has collected millions of dollars in a shadowy global marketplace for social media fraud. Devumi sells Twitter followers and retweets to celebrities, businesses and anyone who wants to appear more popular or exert influence online. Drawing on an estimated stock of at least 3.5 million automated accounts, each sold many times over, the company has provided customers with more than 200 million Twitter followers, a New York Timesinvestigation found.
The contestants are:
Bernard Tomic: World famous tennis player
Fiona O’Loughlin: Queen of comedy
Jackie Gillies: Television personality and psychic medium
Josh Gibson: AFL champion
Kerry Armstrong: Leading Australian actor
Peter Rowsthorn: Iconic comedian and actor
Shannon Noll: Australian rocker
Simone Holtznagel: Model and reality television star
Tiffany Darwish: American singer and songwriter
Pete Evans and Manu Feildel may have witnessed fireworks on My Kitchen Rules, but this year they will boot one team off the show, reports TV Tonight.
“It’s never happened before,” says Seven’s director of network programming Angus Ross.
“Both of them will weigh in if they see something they don’t like.
“It’s obvious from past years everybody loves instant restaurants, and we’ve also upped the stakes with them this year. You will see that the competitors will also be doing a little bit of cooking in Pete & Manu’s house as well.”
It was a weak start for the new Today team of Georgie Gardner and Karl Stefanovic, with more Aussies tuning into Sunrise every day last week, reports Sydney Confidential.
It is understood Nine bosses are not impressed. An insider said executives expected a closer race with Gardner.
“When the numbers came in there was a bit of shock at Nine,” an insider told Confidential.
Gangs of Youths’s “Let Me Down Easy” came in at #2, followed by Angus and Julia Stone’s “Chateau”. There are four women who appear in songs that are inside the top 10: Lorde, Julia Stone, Mataya and Kira Divine.
More than 2.38 million votes were cast in the annual listeners poll. More than half the voters (51%) were females and 48% were males. Statistics released by triple j show that 80% of voters were under 30 years old.
There were 65 Australian artists listed on triple j’s Hottest 100 list. More than 25 artists appeared on the list for the very first time.
After months of informal talks between CA executives and interested parties, CA will distribute detailed information packs to prospective bidders.
With the work of two Melbourne photographers (including former HWT legend Fiona Hamilton), The AFR’sJoe Aston details how corporate Australia enjoyed the Women’s Final on Saturday night at the Australian Open:
Fronting her first Open as Tennis Australia president, Jayne Hrdlicka was ever watchful, seated between Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove (AKA the Lion of Timor) and American great and gay rights activist Billie Jean King, who we’re sure wasn’t too upset to hear that former rival Margaret “tennis is full of lesbians” Court was too busy crabbing (not a euphemism) to attend this year.