Roundup: Cost of Bruce Lehrmann’s rent, Australia returns to Eurovision, Phone-hacking

Bruce Lehrmann

Brittany Higgins, Meta, Podcast advertising, Andrew O’Keefe pleads guilty, Anti-siphoning legislation, Mitchell Johnson

Business of Media

Government paid Higgins $2.3m to settle claim

Brittany Higgins says she received about $2.3 million from the federal government to settle the civil claim stemming from her alleged rape in Parliament House, reports Nine Publishing’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.

In her third and final day under cross-examination in the defamation case launched by Bruce Lehrmann, the former Liberal staffer was asked about the details of her December 2022 personal injury settlement with the government.

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Is Meta’s ad-free service just another way to make people pay for privacy?

Late last week, Europe’s largest consumer rights group filed a complaint against Meta over paid versions of Instagram and Facebook that give users ad-free versions of the social media sites. The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) says the subscriptions – €9.99 per month for the web versions and €12.99 for the apps – are too expensive, reports The Guardian’s Blake Montgomery.

“The tech giant’s pay-or-consent approach is unfair and must be stopped,” the BEUC said. The organisation, which filed its complaint with the EU’s network of consumer protection authorities, called the prices “very high” and said Meta is using “unfair, deceptive and aggressive practices” while giving consumers “misleading and incomplete information”, according to a report by Ars Technica.

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Podcast companies begin to advertise like Hollywood studios

In a shopping mall in Los Angeles’ Century City, a 1,200-square-foot room has been painted green, covered in Christmas decorations and filled with an espresso bar, a cotton candy stand, and a step-and-repeat for photoshoots. An actor dressed in a furry green suit makes an appearance on weekends, reports The Wall Street Journal’s Katie Deighton.

The Grinch’s Holiday Green Room, as it is called, is one of L.A.’s latest “pop-up experiences,” the kind usually deployed to build excitement around big-budget TV shows and movies.

But this one is promoting a podcast, an entertainment format that until recently got by almost entirely with low-key marketing support—or virtually none at all.

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News Brands

Channel Seven paid $4,000 a fortnight in rent for Bruce Lehrmann interview, documents reveal

Channel Seven paid Bruce Lehrmann’s fortnightly rent of $4,000 for a period in June for exclusive access to the former Liberal staffer, according to documents uploaded by the federal court, reports The Guardian’s Amanda Meade.

Seven agreed in a separate exclusivity document, which was also uploaded on Tuesday, to pay Lehrmann’s rent for 12 months in return for exclusive access to him from mid-2023 to mid-2024.

An invoice uploaded online on Tuesday shows fortnightly rent of $4,000 for a period in June. While the invoice appears to be for a single rental period of a fortnight, if Lehrmann’s rent remained at $4,000 for the 12 months, he will receive a total benefit worth $104,000.

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News Corp parent company settles decades-old phone-hacking claims

News Corp’s British newspaper group on Tuesday settled a series of claims of phone-hacking brought by celebrities and other individuals, including a “Spice Girl” and a former minister who said he was targeted because he was a political opponent, reports the ABC.

News Group Newspapers (NGN), the publisher of the Sun daily and the now defunct News of the World which former chief Rupert Murdoch closed over its involvement in hacking, had given public apologies and paid out “substantial damages” to the claimants, according to their lawyers.

Those involved included Melanie Chisholm, or “Sporty Spice” from the well-known girl band, actor Keith Allen, and Shane Lynch from the band Boyzone. As well as celebrities, the group included a victim of the 2005 London bombings.

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Television

Australia returns to Eurovision

Australia is back in the Eurovision Song Contest with 37 countries confirmed for Malmö, Sweden next May, reports TV Tonight.

This marks the first confirmation of Australia’s return after the guaranteed inclusion from the EBU expired in 2023.

SBS is yet to confirm its plans for song selection for 2024 with its Eurovision producers, Blink TV.

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Former television host Andrew O’Keefe pleads guilty after drug-driving charge

Former television presenter Andrew O’Keefe has pleaded guilty to driving with drugs in his system earlier this year, reports the ABC’s Jamie McKinnell.

The case was due to reach a hearing on Tuesday in Downing Centre Local Court, but the 52-year-old entered a plea of guilty.

His lawyer, Sharon Ramsden, produced documents to the court showing a raft of clear results from random tests, including one from 13 hours after the offence, to show his ongoing treatment for drug issues.

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Sports Media

“No time to waste” in anti-siphoning legislation

Free TV Australia has responded to Prime Video acquiring the Cricket World Cup rights from the ICC, ahead of new legislation announced by the federal government, reports TV Tonight.

On Monday Prime Video announced rights to every World Cup, World Test Championship Final, and Champions Trophy match until 2027.

Free TV CEO, Bridget Fair said “We have been saying for years that streaming giants would be coming for our sports rights here in Australia and the acquisition of World Cup cricket by Amazon just proves the point.”

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Amazon’s smash-and-grab on cricket is likely to be a sign of things to come

For once both free-to-air and pay TV broadcasters are on the same side on an anti-siphoning issue: Foxtel, Nine, Ten, Seven and the regional TV networks have all been gazumped on key sporting rights by Amazon and its Prime Video streaming service, report Crikey’s Glenn Dyer and Bernard Keane.

Amazon has grabbed from the International Cricket Council (ICC) the Australian TV rights for the next four years to nearly 450 games of cricket including, in 2025, the women’s one-day international World Cup that will be played in India and, in 2027, Australia’s defence of the men’s one-day international World Cup it won in India last month.

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Mitchell Johnson’s commentary role in doubt as fallout continues over Warner column

Mitchell Johnson and David Warner’s old teammates are lamenting the continued souring of relations between the pair, as the former speed demon revealed the texts that fuelled his fiery column slamming the batter and chief selector George Bailey, report Nine Publishing’s Daniel Brettig and Andrew Wu.

While Johnson hit out at Bailey for what he claimed to be questioning his mental health, those who shared landmark on-field moments with the trio expressed their disappointment at the latest fracture in the baggy green brotherhood.

In Johnson’s regular podcast, The Mitchell Johnson Show, with journalist Bharat Sundaresan, he said he was due to commentate for Triple M this summer. But on Tuesday, Johnson’s name was absent from a Triple M media release that confirmed the list of commentators. There were 18 names listed, including Mark Taylor, Merv Hughes and Wasim Akram. Triple M was contacted for comment.

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