Business of Media
Arrivals and departures at Mediality, home of former AAP business divisions
Amrita Sidhu has been appointed director of media intelligence of the media connections and analysis businesses, Medianet and Mediaverse.
Sidhu is a former national sales director for newswire AAP. She is also the former GM Asia for Tigerspike, and global head of commercial and partnerships for VMG (Venetian Media Group).
Bruce Davidson, the CEO of Mediality (and former AAP CEO), said Amrita’s combination of sales experience, executive management, and product and technology expertise is the right fit for the company.
Mediality is the parent business of Medianet and Mediaverse, and the new brand for the media services company that emerged from the sale of Australian Associated Press. Mediality is owned by Australian publishing groups News Corp, Nine, the West Australian and Australian Community Media.
Davidson said the restructure is due to a decision to rationalise the management structure for Medianet and Mediaverse and take an increasingly product and technology enabled approach to ensure future business performance.
The result is that MD Medianet and Mediaverse, Michael O’Connell, and GM Medianet, Sarah Higgins, will leave the business.
Davidson paid tribute to O’Connell and Higgins for their service to AAP (the former owner of the Medianet and Mediaverse brands) and more lately Mediality.
O’Connell joined the fold in 2007 when AAP acquired his media monitoring and analysis business, Media Research Group. Davidson said he was instrumental in the growth and development of monitoring and analysis over a number of years. When AAP made the decision to sell its media monitoring arm, O’Connell assumed responsibility for Medianet as well as MRG. AAP then acquired Mediaverse and O’Connell managed the transition of both customers and staff, and later helped streamline the media intelligence market presence to the two current media brands. He was also critical in the integration of Directories after its acquisition in 2014.
Higgins joined AAP in 2006 in the Medianet marketing department and built a reputation as a highly effective and solution-orientated professional. She built a wealth of knowledge about the media intelligence sector after moving from the marketing role into business management for Medianet.
Amrita Sidhu will commence on Monday 6 September.
Politicians are saying the ABC is out of touch with ordinary Australians
An attack by the ABC on the alleged drinking culture of an elite SAS unit has been slammed for being out of touch and further evidence that the national broadcaster needs more supervision and less disconnect from the people it is supposed to serve, reports News Corp’s James Morrow.
South Australian Senator Alex Antic said on Monday that a recent episode of 7.30, which suggested that drunken revelry — such as a game of naked Twister at an off-base bar in Perth — was representative of a culture that led to allegations of war crimes in the Brereton Report.
“Unless you are part of a small group of inner city elites, sipping an Aperol Spritz at a Double Bay wine bar, then our national broadcaster appears to have no interest in pitching to you,” Mr Antic said.
Mr Antic is leading a push for an independent ombudsman to take oversight of the national broadcaster.
News Brands
Four Corners airs second part of controversial Fox News investigations
On Monday, the second part of this Four Corners special, Fox and the Big Lie aired, the program examined the case being made against high profile Fox News presenters and Trump backers.
The special is an investigation into Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and alleges how the network promoted Donald Trump’s propaganda and helped destabilise democracy in America.
The episode featured a range of people including:
Gretchen Carlson, former Fox News host
Chris Stirewalt, Former Fox political editor
Conor Powell, Former Fox correspondent
Erik Connolly, lawyer
News Corp has run commentary of the investigation this morning, most notably in its national masthead The Australian:
ABC shows its smug contempt for the other half in Four Corners
Four Corners ‘fails’ basic reporting: Fox News
Erin Molan sues Daily Mail over racism articles
“Tear into this sheila” a Daily Mail editor told a journalist before they published a story that allegedly painted NRL presenter Erin Molan as “a racist” and triggered a social media firestorm against her, a court has heard, reports News Corp’s Perry Duffin.
Now the “hurt, sickened and angry” Molan has broken down in court, explaining the Mail “distorted” her friendly joke about legendary league commentators Ray and Chris Warren.
Molan is suing The Daily Mail claiming she was defamed when the publication “confected outrage” with an article and two tweets in June 2020.
The NRL presenter, in May 2020, had been speaking on 2GB’s Continuous Call Team when she said “hooka looka mooka hooka fooka”.
Molan’s barrister, Kieran Smark, opened the defamation trial in the Federal Court saying that was a light-hearted ribbing of the Warrens who had been heard practising “tricky” player names before a game months earlier.
ABC Ghost Train series ‘misleading’ in linking Wran and Saffron
An independent review of the ABC’s three-part documentary on the 1979 Luna Park ghost train fire found the series relied on interviews and a “misleading” graphic to imply an unsubstantiated corrupt relationship between NSW Premier Neville Wran and underworld boss Abe Saffron, reports SMH‘s Lisa Visentin.
The review of Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire series found viewers were left with the impression the program had concluded Wran was complicit in a cover-up over the fire involving Saffron – a claim which the broadcaster said was not its intention.
Award-winning journalist Chris Masters and University of Sydney Professor Rodney Tiffen, who conducted the review, found the series “mounted a compelling case for a new investigation” and presented a scathing demolition of the police investigation and uncovered fresh evidence pointing towards arson being the cause of the fire. It was “in most ways an outstanding achievement”, their report said.
But the reviewers were critical of documentary makers Caro Meldrum-Hanna and Patrick Begley’s efforts to “point to a direct and/or corrupt relationship with Wran and Saffron” by relying on witness testimony and a graphic.
Television
How Seven blindsided Nine and swooped on The Voice
It will go down as one of the great coups in TV programming…. just why did Nine let The Voice go and what went down in TV backrooms that allowed Seven to sign it? TV Tonight has revealed how The Voice ended up on Seven.
As one network CEO made the captain’s call to cancel The Voice, another CEO pounced and turned it into a 2021 hit.
Twelve months ago Nine CEO Hugh Marks was on an analysts’ call announcing financial results, in which he indicated the $40m cost of The Voice was no longer viable.
“You’ll see some of those high-cost shows be replaced by some other initiatives that … will come in at lower cost,” he said in August 2020.
When Marks went public, it was something of a shock to Nine execs who wanted to keep the show and who fully expected another network to swoop on it.
While Marks was effectively settling an internal argument and signalling Nine was walking away, Seven CEO James Warburton was also listening in.
Nine execs were forced to call ITV Studios Australia CEO David Mott to tell him Nine couldn’t accommodate The Voice.
Little did they know, Seven’s James Warburton was ready to make an offer.
Love Island moves from Queensland to Northern NSW
Love Island is moving from its intended Port Douglas base to Northern NSW, reports TV Tonight.
The Palaszczuk government’s strict border rules have effectively cost it the show with producers unable to easily send cast and crew over state borders.
Location manager, Karen Jones said, “Unfortunately it’s just not possible for Port Douglas right now. The first staff were due to start arriving very shortly and so a decision had to be made.
The state government had touted the show’s Queensland plans which would have delivered an estimated $8.6 million to Queensland’s economy and create more than 100 jobs.
Int. sales for Unusual Suspects, Beauty & the Geek
TVNZ has picked up rights to Beauty And The Geek Australia, reports TV Tonight.
The series produced by Endemol Shine Australia will premiere on TVNZ 2 and TVNZ OnDemand later this year following a deal with Banijay Rights.
Meanwhile Bell Media in Canada is among a raft of buyers to acquire SBS drama The Unusual Suspects.
Sports Media
First weekend of AFL Finals score record 2021 audiences, Dees v Lions 1.05m
The 2021 AFL finals series has launched with the three highest football audiences of the year.
Across the weekend, Seven’s finals coverage averaged 1.01 million viewers nationally and 787,000 in the capital cities – up 5% and 12% respectively on week one of the 2019 finals series.
Melbourne’s average audience was up 14% on 2019, while the Sydney audience soared 110% and Adelaide was up 26%.
Saturday night’s Melbourne v Brisbane qualifying final recorded the highest national audience of the 2021 season, with an average 1.053 million viewers tuning into Seven’s live coverage. This was up 3% on the opening Saturday night match of the 2019 finals series between Brisbane and Richmond.
The match attracted an average audience of 822,000 in the capital cities, up 7% on the 2019 Brisbane-Richmond final, while Seven’s coverage was also up 12% in Melbourne, 46% in Sydney and 22% in Adelaide.
Friday night’s Port Adelaide-Geelong qualifying final scored the second highest national audience of the 2021 season, with an average 1.05 million viewers enjoying the Power’s 43-point victory.
The season’s opening final scored the highest capital city audience of 2021, with an average 841,000 fans enjoying the Power’s dominant win over the Cats. This was up 3% on 2019’s opening Friday night final between competition heavyweights Geelong and Collingwood, while Seven’s audiences in Adelaide and Sydney also spiked 54% and 28% respectively.
Sunday afternoon’s Western Bulldogs v Essendon elimination final was 2021’s third biggest match overall and biggest day fixture, with Seven’s coverage averaging 1.03 million nationally and 789,000 in the capital cities.
Saturday afternoon’s GWS Giants v Sydney Swans elimination final scored an average national audience of 895,000, which was up 17% on the corresponding 2019 finals fixture between the Giants and Western Bulldogs.
Seven’s average capital city audience of 693,000 for the match was up 25% on the 2019 Saturday afternoon final, with Sydney’s audience up 202% and Brisbane up 48%.