Business of Media
Lachlan Murdoch still thinks Fox-News Corp merger makes sense
Lachlan Murdoch has spoken publicly for the first time since he and his father scrapped plans to merge the family’s media assets to create a unified $US28 billion ($40 billion) empire, reports Nine Publishing’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
On an earnings call for Fox Corporation, which owns television networks like Fox News, Fox Entertainment and Fox Sports, Murdoch – its chief executive and executive chairman – told analysts he believed the merger had made sense but that there was “no further time or action” being taken towards it.
After special committees were set up to explore the proposed merger, the decision was made last month that the combination was not in the best interest of the two companies’ shareholders. Shareholders had made their disapproval known, and a rival approached News Corp to acquire Move, its US digital real estate company.
“I’d like to address the recent announcement regarding News Corporation. As you know, my father and I reached the conclusion that exploring a combination with News Corp is not optimal for shareholders of Fox or News Corp at this time,” Lachlan Murdoch told analysts on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT).
“As such, the special committees were disbanded and no further time or action is being taken on this topic.”
But he added that he felt the merger would have made sense. “I’ve said in the past that I think scale provides flexibility and that it’s important to be prepared when opportunities present themselves,” he said.
Disney announces 7,000 layoffs while teasing Toy Story and Frozen sequels
Disney has announced a sweeping corporate restructuring that will result in 7,000 people losing their jobs as part of an effort to achieve US$5.5bn (£4.5bn, A$7.9bn) in cost savings, at the same time as revealing plans for sequels to Toy Story and Frozen, reports The Guardian’s Sian Cain.
The layoffs represent an estimated 3.6% of Disney’s global workforce and come after major job cuts at other US giants including Alphabet, Amazon, Ford and Meta.
The chief executive, Bob Iger, outlined the cost-cutting plan to investors during the company’s fiscal first-quarter earnings call, in which Disney net income came in at $1.28bn, below analyst estimates of $1.43bn.
Activist Disney investor ends battle for board seat
The activist investor Nelson Peltz on Thursday declared a swift end to his battle to instill himself or his son on the board of Disney, a day after the company’s chief executive, Robert A. Iger, announced a restructuring plan that will cut billions in costs and eliminate 7,000 jobs, report The New York Times’ Lauren Hirsch and Brooks Barnes.
Peltz, who leads the investment firm Trian Partners, had begun a proxy fight in January in an attempt to get himself or his son on Disney’s board. He called on the company to cull costs, revamp its streaming business, refocus on profit growth, reinstate its dividend and clean up the company’s messy succession planning. That Peltz’s Trian had amassed roughly $1 billion in Disney stock became known late last year, just as Disney fired Bob Chapek as chief executive after a troubled run of roughly two and a half years and reinstalled Iger, who held the position from late 2005 to early 2020.
“We are pleased that our board and management can remain focused without the distraction of a proxy contest, and we have tremendous faith in Bob Iger’s leadership and the transformative vision for Disney’s future he set forth yesterday,” Disney’s board said in a statement.
Sid Maher follows Dore, Smith out of News Corp
The Australian’s deputy editor Sid Maher can be identified as the mysterious “senior editor” who resigned from News Corp Australia last month after complaints about his behaviour at a Christmas drinks party, reports Nine Publishing’s Joe Aston.
According to an internal HR report, Maher was accused of grabbing the chest of a female colleague at Bar Cleveland in Sydney’s Surry Hills on the evening of December 8 and then of intimidating a second female colleague who confronted him about his behaviour.
He is believed to have disputed the complainants’ version of events, maintained his innocence and engaged legal representation who sent a legal letter to News.
We are not suggesting that the allegations are true, only that they were made and investigated.
Twitter users told they’ve hit daily post limit in latest outage since Musk takeover
Twitter users were unable to post instantly on the website for almost an hour, in the latest outage to hit the social media platform since billionaire Elon Musk’s $44bn takeover, reports The Guardian’s Josh Taylor.
Users attempting to tweet were informed by the platform they had hit their daily limit – despite many of them reporting having not tweeted at all that day.
The outage affected not just new tweets but retweets and replies. Users also reported not being able to access their direct messages.
Some users discovered a workaround by scheduling tweets one minute into the future. The service eventually returned, however at the time of reporting, direct messages were still missing.
Radio
Jodie & … Mali? SA Premier Peter Malinauskas hosts Nova’s Jodie & Hayesy show in radio stunt
Nova’s new breakfast duo has pulled out the big guns in the bid for ratings glory, enlisting Premier Peter Malinauskas to “take over” the airwaves, reports News Corp’s Emily Olle.
On Thursday morning, Malinauskas hosted the Nova 91.9 breakfast show alongside Jodie Oddy in a premier “job swap” – with Oddy’s co-host Andrew Hayes “running the state” for the day.
Malinauskas seemingly slipped in a cheeky jab at last week’s New Year’s Test uproar when asked how Hayes would fare in the state’s top job.
“I’m entirely relaxed about it, what could possibly go wrong. Everything will be solved in the next 24 hours, ramping crisis will be finished, the NFL Superbowl will be making its way to Adelaide,” he said.
But the premier’s radio appearance was short lived, playing a quick game of “dead or alive” before exiting the studio after all of 10 minutes.
“He muttered something about running our state,” Oddy told listeners when the premier bailed out.
See Also: Bringing the laughs on air and off air with Adelaide’s Jodie & Hayesy
Television
Netflix’s password sharing crackdown is heading for Australian users
On Thursday morning, Netflix’s New Zealand customers woke up to the news that password sharing – when an account is shared beyond the household to which it is registered – had been blocked, effective immediately, reports Nine Publishing’s Karl Quinn.
The change also applies to users in Portugal, Canada and Spain. If the company sticks to its previously announced timeline Australia will follow by the end of March, locking out users who share accounts with family, friends and partners.
The change was first flagged last April, as the streamer responded to the first backwards blip in members in a decade. But exactly how it will affect Australian customers has been far from clear.
The full details of its plans in Australia are yet to be revealed, but the conditions applying in New Zealand and elsewhere offer us a fair indication of what we can expect.
Sports Media
T-shirts, Switzerland and Cathy Freeman’s running shoes: Nine’s year-long push to buy Olympics rights
At a company off-site event in Newcastle last February, members of Nine’s executive team were given a black t-shirt with one word written in bold, white letters: PARIS, reports Nine Publishing’s Zoe Samios.
There were no Olympic rings or references to the major sporting tournament (there are strict guidelines on this), but there were four little logos to represent key sports: swimming, athletics, cycling and rowing.
The shirts were the start of a conversation about whether Nine might be interested in bidding for the rights to the Olympic Games, a tournament traditionally watched by millions locally on rival network Channel 7. Nine sources, with knowledge of the meeting and deal negotiations but not authorised to speak publicly, said this was the meeting that formally started a year-long process that culminated in a $315 million deal signed between Nine Entertainment and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday.
Zombies, Squid Game and lots of beer: A look at this year’s Super Bowl ads
Move over crypto. Booze is back. For the first time in more than three decades, Super Bowl viewers will see ads from alcohol brands other than Anheuser-Busch InBev SA. In June, the Budweiser brewer gave up its rights as the exclusive alcohol brand in the big game, giving other beer and liquor makers a turn in the spotlight, reports Nine Publishing’s Gerry Smith.
“We’ve been waiting over 30 years for this moment,” said Sofia Colucci, global vice president of marketing for the Miller brands at Molson Coors Beverage Co. “It took us less than 30 seconds to decide that we wanted to buy an ad.”
Heineken, Rémy Martin cognac and Crown Royal whiskey will also air ads during Sunday’s game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs on the Fox network.
The flood of alcohol commercials will help fill the void left by cryptocurrency companies. Last year, there were so many spots from the much-hyped sector that it was nicknamed the Crypto Bowl. Larry David, for example, starred in an ad for FTX that said: “Don’t be like Larry. Don’t miss out on the next big thing.”
But after crypto crashed last year, FTX and its peers abandoned plans to return to the big game, according to Mark Evans, head of ad sales at Fox Sports. FTX collapsed in November and its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, has been charged with fraud.
Despite concerns about a potential recession, advertisers were still willing to pay top dollar to be in the biggest TV event of the year. The 2022 Super Bowl drew 112.3 million viewers on NBC’s platforms.