Media Roundup: Nine's beach house scam, Meta's stock surge, Netflix's Aussie ad rollout, Diddy sues over doco and Woolies cuts jobs

Television

Nine cancels property show over buyers scam

Channel Nine has yanked the house-hunting show Find My Beach House from 9Now after a fake-buyer scandal blew up.

Hosted by The Block's Shelley Craft, the show landed in hot water when a sharp-eyed neighbour tipped off ABC's Media Watch. The controversy centres on an episode featuring on two people, who posed as keen buyers for a luxury Mornington Peninsula home - but weren’t actually in the market.

As Heath Parkes-Hupton reports on news.com, With season two airing over summer, it's a bad look for Nine's property reality slate.

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Streaming

Netflix to hit Aussie customers with ads

Netflix is making its final move on Australia's basic plan subscribers, forcing them to choose: ads or more money.

As Meg Watson reports in The Age, the once-cheapest $10.99/month plan is officially dead, with existing users automatically rolled into the $7.99/month ad-supported tier. It's already happened in the US, France, and Brazil - now it's Australia's turn.

Netflix is spinning it as a 35% saving, but for ad-free streaming, you’ll have to cough up for a pricier plan. Your binge, your budget.

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Sean "Diddy" Combs is taking legal aim at NBCUniversal and Ample, slapping them with a $160 million defamation lawsuit over the bombshell doco, Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy.

As Eileen Reslen reports in The Daily Telegraph, filed in New York, the lawsuit - obtained by Page Six - claims the film falsely paints Combs as a serial murderer, rapist, and sex trafficker, even comparing him to Jeffrey Epstein and calling him "an embodiment of Lucifer".

His legal team calls it malicious and baseless. NBCU? Yet to comment.

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Netflix's Belle Gibson drama takes liberties with the truth

Belle Gibson's fake cancer story was a lie - and now, so is much of Netflix's Apple Cider Vinegar, the new series dramatising her rise and fall.

Billed as a "true story based on a lie," the show centres on Gibson’s supposed friendship-turned-rivalry with Milla Blake, a character reportedly based on real-life cancer patient Jessica Ainscough. But according to Ainscough’s former partner, Tallon Pamenter, that connection never existed.

The drama may be compelling, but the lines between fact and fiction are as blurry as Gibson's own story.

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Retail

Woolies to cut office jobs is cost crunch move

Woolworths is trimming its office workforce, telling staff that some roles will be made redundant as part of a major restructure.

As Euan Black reports in The Australian Financial Review, The cuts follow last week’s shake-up, which saw the supermarket giant unveil Woolworths Retail, a new division aimed at adapting to shifting consumer demands.

"In this environment, managing costs is critical to reinvest in value for customers," a Woolworths spokesperson told the AFR.

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