By James Manning

This week Gravity Media revealed the acquisition completed on August 30.

See also:
John Newton’s Gravity Media acquires Telstra’s Chief Entertainment

This is the fifth acquisition that Gravity Media has made since securing substantial investment from TowerBrook Capital Partners in September 2016.

In 2017 it took over sports production company Input Media, to enable the business to offer end-to-end solutions including high-end production and technical facilities, and Australian communications solutions company Stranger Designs to expand its event communications offering.

In March 2018 it bought Genesis Broadcast Services and immediately rebranded it as Gearhouse Broadcast Germany to serve the production markets of Northern Europe.

In July 2018 it acquired Proshow Broadcast, a supplier of mobile production solutions to broadcasters, producers and rights holders throughout the USA and Canada, which has since been integrated into Gravity Media’s Gearhouse Broadcast USA operations.

Gravity Media was started by CEO John Newton. He explained the origins of his 25-year journey to Mediaweek:

“I founded a company in 1994 that was sold to Gearhouse, then a listed UK company. Gravity Media was later set up to buy some of the assets back off that listed company. That happened in 2000 and I led the management buyout. Since then I have been chief executive and the majority shareholder of the group.”

Newton trained as an engineer and later worked in production. “I later moved from the technical side of production to the commercial side.” Although UK based, Gravity Media’s CEO lives in Sydney.

Gravity Media operates four brands in Australia – Gearhouse Broadcast, HyperActive Broadcast, Input Media and Chief Entertainment – with Newton telling Mediaweek it may group those brands together as Gravity Media in the future to simply the offer to customers.

Helping Gravity Media grow over the years have been many long-standing customers in various parts of the world engaging its services either weekly, monthly or annually. “We also have customers on the project side that we tend to work for on a bi-annual basis, often because of the nature of sporting events. That includes events like the football, rugby or cricket World Cups and the summer and winter Olympics.

“There has been a lot of consolidation in our industry in the past few years.

“There are three or four groups around the world that compete on the very large events because of the capital nature of the business.”

Of the major players, Newton noted NEP is the biggest, with Mediapro and Gravity Media other global giants.

Newton said it was hard to rank companies because of the different metrics that could be used. “If you judge on revenues then NEP would be the biggest by far. They are an equipment supply company with some production services. They would be followed by Mediapro who provide not only equipment, but they also own the rights to certain big sporting events. As an organisation it could be bigger than NEP by the nature of what it does.

“If you compare just on facilities, NEP would be the biggest followed by Euromedia Group, Mediapro and Gravity Media.”

Newton explained Media Gravity is partnered in the business by a private equity business Towerbrook Capital Partners, an Anglo American fund.

“When we work with private equity we set out what the landscape is and the core business and the risk. Our core business is in capital infrastructure and production services with a level of production.

“Would we go to the next level and buy events rights? Global events are so huge and so costly that under the way we are structured at present that wouldn’t happen.

“We are always looking at how we could diversify with the range of things we offer. Would we buy major sports rights – no.”

While sports coverage is key to the business, it works in many entertainment genres. “Reality TV is covered by us in a number of different ways. There is scripted reality, which they tend to shoot with camcorders and then they heavily post-produce it. We do provide that kind of equipment. It’s not capital intensive, the equipment, it is more labour intensive when you shoot it with a big post-production element.

“We do a lot of light entertainment shows – things like The Voice, The X Factor, Australian Idol-style formats, The Masked Singer etc.”

With a changing TV landscape, Newton noted the business has to adapt. “With 100s of channels of TV and streaming platforms – people consume media very differently. The content is produced differently for a different audience.”

Remotely produced events are something Gravity Media and others have been delivering for a decade. “They are not new. The ability to have less people at a venue and still send signals back reduces logistical costs. The technology will get better and less people will be needed on site. Artificial intelligence will soon play a part in cameras moving and tracking the play.”

The growth of streaming platforms has been good for Gravity in much the same way the explosion of TV channel choice has been.

“As long as people still consume media production will be required. Television studios and stages didn’t have very high utilisation going back a few years. Most of the big studio sites around the world are now locked out for three or four years.”

Globally Gravity deals with Netflix and Disney, among others. “Most of the major broadcasters in one shape or form. Out customers are three fold – broadcasters, rights holders and production companies.”

By Trent Thomas

Read the TV Demand columns here.

To find out we spoke with Parrot Analytics CEO and co-founder Wared Seger. With offices in Auckland, Los Angeles, New York, London, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, and Singapore, Parrot has accelerated quickly as it has established the industry’s first cross-platform global demand measurement standard for TV content. With a background in neuroscience including a Bachelor degree in Biomedical Science in neurobiology and a Masters degree in Bioscience Enterprise, his most recent role before Parrot Analytics was at the University of Auckland’s start-up program Velocity, and its sister organisation Chiasma, where he served as CEO and chair. With this background, Seger has led the development of the Parrot Analytics technology,

“I figured out quite early that every human innovation that has impacted the world in some way is based on three key principles: Science, Technology and Entrepreneurship. This really helped me to establish my own future pathway.

“Seeing the increasing importance of data made me realise the potential that existed to harness it in a way that created real value for organisations, such as media companies who rely on audience data to measure their success.”

Parrot Analytics’ measurement of demand for television shows includes social media engagement, video streaming and peer-to-peer protocols, photo sharing, blogging, and research platforms. The crux of Parrot Analytics product and the centre of our TV Demand column is the global Demand Rank system that the company produces which Seger explains uses data points to create a meaningful demand metric,

“We capture many, many new data points each day (more than a billion) across the entire global consumer activity spectrum, including video consumption (streaming and downloads), social media engagement (hashtags, liking, sharing) and research actions (reading about shows, writing about shows, etc.). In terms of downloading, just one of our many data sources, we hold the patent for deriving media usage according to consumer’s global P2P activity.

“The more consumer effort required, the more importance is attached to each signal. Once all the signals are weighted and combined, the audience demand for each show almost anywhere in the world can be compared with that of any other show using our globally standardized Demand Expressions metric.

“Our Demand Rank system ensures that the important demand signals (e.g. watching or downloading a series) are weighted more heavily than others. We use factors such as time as a key arbitrator, enabling us to filter out the “noise”, which results in a demand metric that is more than a measure of ‘buzz’ (which the industry, as you know, has had access to via traditional social listening tools for many years now).”

Parrot Analytics data was also used in conjunction with the upcoming 2020 edition of Guinness World Records to determine several new TV categories in the upcoming edition, will be available globally September 5.

The next step is how does Parrot Analytics monetise this data and find clientele?  With the television industry in a state of flux with content being produced by streaming companies such as Netflix, Amazon, Stan, and Hulu, Parrot Analytics has found a demand for their data from content creators, marketers, and media companies in an attempt to increase the popularity of their content across all platforms. According to Seger, it does this by applying the global TV demand data to the industry’s key practices,

“We exist to help our partners around the world capture more value by applying global TV demand data to the entertainment industry’s core workflows. Our data accelerates content sales and distribution, informs better acquisitions and programming decisions, facilitates cost-effective marketing, de-risks production, helps content strategy and recommendations, informs better merchandising deals, and more. Clients partner with us to help them in all of these areas, which directly impacts their productivity and profitability.”

While Parrots Analytics is a data-driven company it doesn’t just stop at spreadsheets and charts as it brought its data to the red carpet this year with the first Global TV Demand Awards which saw  The Walking Dead being named the ‘Most In-Demand TV Show’ in the World.

left to right: The Walking Dead’s Pollyanna McIntosh and Josh McDermitt; Parrot Analytics Board member Adriana Cisneros, CEO of CISNEROS; Parrot Analytics CEO Wared Seger; and Denise Huth, showrunner, The Walking Dead).

In January 2020, the Parrot Analytics Awards will return and will be adding several new categories, including regional awards. With Samuel Stadler, VP Marketing, Parrot Analytics announcing,

“As we know, there are a number of awards that honour the artistic merits of television shows and the creative talent behind them. At Parrot Analytics, we measure the audience demand for shows around the world, and we want to honor the shows that are resonating the most with viewers. The Global TV Demand Awards is the first data-driven awards show, and for 2020 we are adding more categories to showcase the impact of specific genres, as well as categories that illustrate the global influence of exports from territories with some of the top producers of content outside of the US. We’ll have more exciting details in the weeks ahead, so stay tuned.”

The Bullring promises to push the boundaries with the two young bulls (Brown and Riewoldt) debating hot topics with the older bull (Lyon) aiming to provoke the two. They will have many laughs along the way, with regular tongue-in-cheek segments, such as “Self Grab or News Grab”, poking fun at media and themselves.

Lyon will compare his era to the modern game with “That’s Not a Knife”, Brown will offer key footy figures and players advice during “Coffee With Browny” and Riewoldt will wrap his arms around personalities doing it tough with “Give Us A Hug”.

“The Bullring will be a lively, fast-paced chat about the issues of the day with an eye to the past as a reference point. We’ve just scratched the surface of Brown and Riewoldt’s media talent and as the show’s name suggests, getting the young bulls into the ring, eyeballing each other across the desk should make for some interesting and entertaining viewing,” said Lyon.

The Bullring headlines four weeks of finals coverage on Fox Footy.

David King and Ben Dixon return for The First Crack podcast this Saturday night after the footy. The televised podcast will offer fans the first analysis of the four qualifying and elimination finals.

Fan-favourite AFL 360 airs Monday-Wednesday making way for the game on Thursday this week and On The Couch will continue in regular time-slot on Mondays.

Jason Dunstall and the Bounce team move to a special time on Saturday afternoon live between the two blockbuster finals.

The comedy quiz show The Beep Test, with guests Kelli Underwood and Adam Spencer, and will air in regular time on Sunday after a replay of Bounce.

On The Mark takes a break this week, returning next week with special guests.

All four finals games will be televised live, with Fox Footy taking the Seven coverage of the clashes, but without the ads during play.

The Fox Footy team will provide extended analysis shows pre-game, at half time and post-match.

Amazon has announced that a series of stand-up specials featuring Australian comedians will be filmed in Melbourne this month and premiere exclusively on Prime Video in early 2020.

The specials will include a talented roster of award-winning and nominated comedians, and be made available to Prime members around the world in more than 200 countries and territories. The new specials will include performances by Lano & Woodley, Zoë Coombs Marr, Judith Lucy, Tommy Little, Anne Edmonds, Tom Walker, Celia Pacquola, Dilruk Jayasinha, Alice Fraser and Tom Gleeson.

The specials will be produced by Guesswork Television. The move follows a series that a Guesswork associated company Token Artists produced for Stan in 2016 – One Night Stan. That six-episode season also featured Judith Lucy, Tom Gleeson and Celia Pacquola.

See also:
Stan and Token Artists present One Night Stan

“Amazon’s comedy series and stand-up specials have excited our customers around the world, and we’re looking forward to welcoming this talented group of Australian comedians to the Prime Video family,” said James Farrell, head of international originals for Amazon Studios. “These are hilarious performances that we know our customers will love in Australia and around the world.”

The Australian Amazon Original specials will be filmed at The Coopers Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne this September.

The shows featured in the comedy series are:

Joy – Tom Gleeson

Gold Logie winner. Chief celebrity interrogator. Host of the highest-rated Australian quiz show on TV. All-round hard man (especially in Cairns). There’s not much Tom Gleeson didn’t do in the last year – and Australia can’t get enough of him. Celebrities such as Karl Stefanovic, Lee Lin Chin and Andrew Denton keep lining up to be dragged over the coals by Tom on The Weekly’s Hard Chat. Sci-fi movie geeks and Led Zeppelin buffs are dying for the chance to impress Tom and have their shot at returning a quip on Hard Quiz, now Australia’s highest-rated quiz show. Despite his ruthless grillings, he’s still got a lot of love to give. He campaigned mercilessly to help Grant Denyer win the Gold Logie and he bloody won it, before scoring his very own little gold statue in 2019.

Accolades: Winner of the 2019 TV Week Gold Logie; Three-time Nominee for Best Comedy, Helpmann Awards.

All Talk – Celia Pacquola

Celia Pacquola’s All Talk was a highlight amongst the 600-plus shows at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, earning Celia a nomination for the 2018 Melbourne Comedy Festival Award for Most Outstanding Show. She also recently took home the Helpmann Award for Best Comedy Performer, beating out a star-studded line up of some of Australia’s top comedians. Celia is a multi-award-winning performer, but it is her genius as a writer that makes her stand-up so damn good, taking stories in unexpected and delightful directions. Sharp, frank, honest, deft and smart as hell, Celia is as good as it gets.

Accolades: Winner of the Best Comedy Performer, Helpmann Awards, 2019; Nominated for the Melbourne Comedy Festival Award for Most Outstanding Show, Melbourne Comedy Festival, 2014, 2018.

Self-Diagnosed Genius – Tommy Little

Idiot or genius? For many, the jury has been out on Tommy Little, but he’s here to set the record straight.  I mean, would an idiot bungee jump nude on live TV? Or sign up to run one of the toughest marathons in the world, in minus 20 degrees Celsius in Antarctica with no previous experience or training? We rest our case. Despite not knowing how to spell the word genius, Tommy is without a doubt a genius. Miraculously, Tommy is back on Australian soil after surviving the Antarctic marathon and has a cracking story to share. A life of bad choices and dubious decisions has proven to be professional gold for Tommy, who effortlessly mines his life for big laughs across the country. His 2019 tour, Self-Diagnosed Genius, proved to be his biggest yet.

Judith Lucy vs Men – Judith Lucy

After reflecting on her entire history with men, Judith Lucy has concluded that maybe it’s time to shut up shop. “Whatever it is that I’m selling, a lot of straight guys simply aren’t that interested in buying it. And I’m including people like my father.” Judith Lucy vs Men toured in 2019, exploring stereotypes, Judith’s own desires and recounting her full history with the opposite sex, leaving it up to the audience to determine whether she should ever date again.

Accolades: Winner of the People’s Choice Award, Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2017; Winner, Best Comedy Performer, Helpmann Awards 2015.

Fly – Lano & Woodley

After 12 years apart, Colin Lane and Frank Woodley have reunited to realise Col’s dream of making some important theatre, telling the epic story of the pioneers of flight, the Wright brothers. The only thing that could possibly get in the way is… well… Frank. Fly has all the ingredients that have made Lano & Woodley Australian favourites for more than 20 years, with a magical chemistry and polish that had audiences whooping with uncontrollable laughter and jumping to their feet at the conclusion of every performance.

Accolades: Winner of the People’s Choice Award, Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2018; Nominated for the Barry Award for Most Outstanding Show, Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2018; Nominated for the Helpmann Award for Best Comedy Performer 2018.

What’s Wrong with You? – Anne Edmonds

Eddo let her alter ego Helen Bidou take her spot at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival last year but now, against her better judgement, Anne has returned and she wants to know… what’s wrong with you? Not just you, but the whole lot of you. Humanity has clearly flushed its own head down the drain and she can’t decide whether to pull you all up or leave you down there. Clear eyed and in no mood to suffer fools, Eddo is as angry as she is over it.

Accolades: Nominated for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Award (formerly the Barry Award), Melbourne International Comedy Festival, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019; Nominated for Best Comedy Performer, Helpmann Awards 2018, 2019.

Bossy Bottom – Zoë Coombs Marr

After returning to the stage as herself last year (after years of performing with a neckbeard in her award-winning guise as ‘Dave’), Zoë Coombs Marr earned a nomination for Best Comedy Performer at the 2018 Helpmann Awards with Bossy Bottom. Playful, surprising and a little bit silly, it was an absolute hit with fans and critics from Melbourne to Edinburgh.

Accolades: Nominated for the Helpmann Award for Best Comedy Performer 2018; Winner of the Barry Award for Most Outstanding Show, Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2016; Winner of the Golden Gibbo Award for Best Independent Show, Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2016; Nominated for Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Comedy Show, Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016.

Very Very – Tom Walker

After a massive 2018 delighting and frightening audiences around the globe with his show, Honk Honk Honk Honk Honk, Tom Walker is back and, this year he’s decided to strip things back a bit. With a few less words in the title (just two, Very Very) and many less words in the show (he keeps saying this), this brand new hour promises to be, well, frankly, we don’t know. We do know, however, that Tom teaming up with the award-winning comedian, theatre maker, writer and all-round creative genius Zoë Coombs Marr to direct the show is making for the most exciting and exhilarating new partnership in comedy. Put Very Very at the top of your list.

Accolades: Winner of the Best Newcomer Award, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, 2016; Nominated for the Barry Award for Most Outstanding Show, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, 2018.

Live – Dilruk Jayasinha

Dilruk Jayasinha has quickly become one of Australia’s favourite comedians. So much so that he won the 2018 Logie Award for Most Popular New Talent. His small screen star may be soaring but Dil’s finest work is all on stage. His live shows have been received with popular and critical acclaim, and his most recent tour culminated in knockout performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and London’s Soho Theatre.

Accolades: Winner of the Graham Kennedy Award for Most Popular New Talent, TV Week Logie Awards 2018.

Savage – Alice Fraser

Alice Fraser’s critically-acclaimed solo show, Savage, is about life, death and paper towels – a hilarious and heartbreaking show that straddles the line between comedy and tragedy. In 2015, Savage sold out seasons and earned astronomical critical acclaim at comedy festivals in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra, as well as getting glowing reviews from some of the hardest critics in the business during Alice’s debut season at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The Australian Amazon Original stand-up specials will be filmed at The Coopers Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne. Additional information and tickets are available via The Coopers Malthouse Theatre.

The announcement of the Amazon Original stand-up specials in Australia follows the recent announcement of Amazon’s first Australian Amazon Original, LOL: Last One Laughing, to be executive produced and hosted by Rebel Wilson.

Both LOL: Last One Laughing and Amazon’s Stand-Up specials will be available on Prime Video in Australia and around the world in more than 200 countries and territories in 2020. 

By Trent Thomas

The latest season of the teen drama continues the original story established in the novel of the same name by Jay Asher and moves away from the Hannah Baker story as it uncovers the mystery of the murder of Bryce Walker as well as the cover-up of Tyler’s attempted massacre at the Spring Fling. The new season stars Dylan Minnette, Christian Navarro, Brandon Flynn, Justin Prentice, and Alisha Boe.

The fresh face in this weeks Digital Original charts for both Australia and New Zealand is The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance with the fantasy adventure series produced by Netflix and The Jim Henson Company serving as a prequel to the 1982 Jim Henson film The Dark Crystal. 

The 10 episode season was released on Netflix on August 30 and is set on the planet Thra, where three Gelflings named Rian, Brea and Deet inspire a rebellion against the Skeksis when they discover a horrifying secret behind their power that threatens all of Thra.

Another face that we haven’t seen for a while in the charts is Breaking Bad which has worked its way back into Overall TV charts after the announcement trailer for the new film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie was released by Netflix on August 24. The movie is due to be released on October 11 and follows on from the show’s finale with Jesse Pinkman pursuing freedom after escaping from his captors.

Tuesday Week 36 2019

By James Manning

• Seven News 966,000/929,000
• Nine News 877,000/913,000
• A Current Affair 751,000
• ABC News 641,000
• 7.30 495,000
• The Project 298,000/461,000
• 10 News First 347,000
• The Drum 191,000
• SBS World News 150,000

Breakfast TV

• Sunrise 271,000
• Today 194,000

Seven

Home and Away was on 625,000 after starting the week on 653,000.

Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly was just under 500,000 on the day Seven revealed a primetime Pooch production for 2020.

The audience haven’t warmed to The Proposal in the week since it launched. After the first episode did 307,000 a week ago, episode two was on, get this, 307,000 again.

Nine

Tracy Grimshaw warned A Current Affair viewers they would be angered by the bank who was about to take a struggler’s home when all she wanted to do was renegotiate the mortgage as she was spending $3,000 a month on medicines for her husband. Reporter Reid Butler revealed the bank was ANZ. Later in the episode Leila McKinnon interviewed actress Maggie Kirkpatrick about her wrongful sexual assault conviction. The second ACA episode of the week did 751,000 after 805,000 on Monday.

The Block looked at time like a VW commercial for red Amaroks as they lined up outside the construction site to transport the Blockheads to a challenge featuring former Block All-stars. The Tuesday episode did 847,000, down from 883,000 a week ago.

SeaChange episode five was all about love with 520,000 tuning in after 546,000 for episode four overnight a week prior. The consolidated numbers for that episode have lifted it to 650,000 metro without counting 9Now views.

10

After 475,000 Monday, The Project did 461,000. The show ended with another interview that was way too short – the talented couple of Tiffany Hall and Ed Kavalee who have produced a kids’ book – A First Time For Everything. The Project seems to be a nurturing ground for celebrities writing for kids. Authors connected with the show have included Hughesy and Holly Ife, Peter Helliar and Rove McManus.

Two contestants left Australian Survivor last night and it ended up both who were sent to Exile Beach are now on the Jury. First Daisy went home, and then it was Simon, explaining it was easier to win a Brownlow Medal than Survivor. After 40 days on the island there are six people to fight it out over the few episodes remaining. The Tuesday episode was on 808,000 after 803,000 a week ago. The episode won all the key demos for 10.

A repeat episode of NCIS then did 190,000.

ABC

Tuesday night has been a trouble spot for the broadcaster for some time. It has a hit on its hands now though with Endemol Shine Australia’s Old People’s Home For 4 Year Olds. After launching with a swag of good reviews and an audience of 478,000 a week ago, the series has climbed to 628,000 for episode two.

Earlier in the night Foreign Correspondent was on 469,000.

The AFL doco Collingwood: From The Inside Out screened after 9.30pm with 264,000 watching.

SBS

The return of Britain’s Most Historic Towns with the wonderful Professor Alice Roberts did 215,000 as she explored the history Canterbury.

Insight then spoke with people who had been wrongfully convicted with the episode drawing 172,000.

Dateline then returned to its traditional timeslot with 172,000 watching a report on the comeback of measles in the US and how New York is ground zero for the anti-vax movement.