Business of Media
Fox profit beats estimates as lower costs help offset ad revenue weakness
Fox Corp beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter profit on Wednesday, due to lower expenses, even as its revenue tumbled more than 15% on weakness in its advertising business, reports Reuters.
The media company benefited from a near 25% fall in operating expenses in the quarter. That helped it report an adjusted profit of $1.09 per share, compared with LSEG estimates of 96 cents.
Shares of the company behind the Fox sports network and Fox News were up 1.3% in early trading.
Refinery29 US’s new owner plans to cover sports, buy more media companies
The parent of Essence magazine is laying the groundwork to acquire more publishers, weeks after it agreed to buy Vice Media’s women’s lifestyle site Refinery29, reports The Wall Street Journal’s Alexandra Bruell.
Sundial Group of Cos. created a new holding company that will be led by Kirk McDonald, who most recently served as the North America chief executive of the ad-buying division of advertising giant WPP.
Tech firms must ‘tame’ algorithms under Ofcom child safety rules
Social media firms have been told to “tame aggressive algorithms” that recommend harmful content to children, as part of Ofcom’s new safety codes of practice, reports The Guardian’s Alex Hern.
The children’s safety codes, introduced as part of the Online Safety Act, let Ofcom set new, tight rules for internet companies and how they can interact with children. It calls on services to make their platforms child-safe by default or implement robust age checks to identify children and give them safer versions of the experience.
From MrBeast to Logan Paul: Why Wall Street is infatuated with influencers
Two years ago, Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, ventured to Bentonville, Arkansas, with his management team to talk creators — and chocolate. Donaldson, a giant on YouTube (252 million-plus subscribers), was aiming to leverage his audience to build a real-world business: a candy line called Feastables. And Walmart, based in Bentonville, signed on as a launch partner, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Weprin.
Feastables now brings in nine figures annually in revenue, Donaldson told a conference last year, making it a textbook example of how a creator can monetize fandom. “I know for a fact that Walmart and a lot of these retailers are now going, ‘OK, what Jimmy did in chocolate, what Logan [Paul] did in hydration [with beverage brand Prime], are creators building in other categories? And should we be more aggressive?” says Reed Duchscher, CEO of creator management firm Night Media, which had repped MrBeast in all areas until recently but now just reps Donaldson for his Feastables business.
Television
Australian duo Electric Fields out of Eurovision in nail-biting finish
Australian electronic duo Electric Fields are out of Eurovision. The pair delivered a dazzling stage performance but failed to win over television audiences in Europe, joining Poland, Iceland, Moldova and Azerbaijan, which now leave the competition, reports Nine Publishing’s Michael Idato.
The loss for Electric Fields – vocalist Zaachariaha Fielding and keyboard player Michael Ross – will no doubt become a reflection point for Australia’s future in Eurovision.
The aftermath of Baby Reindeer shows we’ve lost the plot on armchair sleuthing
It’s a fair prediction, even at this early stage, that Baby Reindeer will be the most talked about show of 2024. Or, at the very least, let’s go with “Have you seen Baby Reindeer?” as the most persistent watercooler question of the year, reports Nine Publishing’s Sarah Thomas.
Writer-actor Richard Gadd’s Netflix smash is a black comedy, of sorts, about a googly-eyed, failing comedian, which then shapeshifts into a bracing, complex nosedive into trauma and surviving abuse. It’s also based on a “true story”, that is, Gadd’s own story. It’s a powerfully executed piece of work, but also exposes some truth about us as an audience and our loosening grip on the boundaries of entertainment, storytelling and fact over fiction.
Sports Media
‘Makes me sick’: Erin Molan spills beans on Andrew Johns feud
Erin Molan has revealed Andrew Johns still refuses to speak with her during an emotional tell-all segment on her breakfast radio show, reports News Corp.
The former Channel Nine sport presenter and NRL immortal only confirmed rumours of their falling out in 2022 – years after reports first emerged Johns did not want to work with Molan.
Molan was in 2019 quietly shifted away from Channel Nine’s Friday Night NRL coverage team – while Johns remained in his role as lead analyst – when it reached a point that the pair were unable to work alongside each other.