Business of Media
Matildas lifted Optus brand by almost $1b after cyberattack
The Matildas’ record-breaking FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign has contributed to a near $1 billion recovery in the brand value of Optus, almost erasing the catastrophic falls after last year’s cyberattack, reports The Australian Financial Review’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
See Also: Matildas superstars return to Optus Sport: New season of Women’s Super League
Every year, Brand Finance Australia measures and ranks the top 100 brands in Australia by brand value. In 2023, Woolworths topped the list at $16.2 billion, but it was Optus’ $1.2 billion nosedive that raised eyebrows. The telco brand’s valuation would have grown to $4.5 billion, but instead fell to $3.3 billion.
Why Lachlan Murdoch wanted News Corp to stay out of Australia’s betting market
As the deadline looms for bookmaker Betr to complete its final payout of now-infamous 100-1 launch odds on a string of sporting events, the inducement is a sore spot with its former investor News Corp, despite a lack of financial exposure, reports The Sydney Morning Herald’s Calum Jaspan and Amelia McGuire.
Betr launched audaciously onto Australia’s wagering scene as a News Corp-backed consortium, reportedly against advice from then co-chair Lachlan Murdoch. A year on, the media giant remains tight-lipped on the status of its $75 million investment, of which it has written down $52 million as a loss.
Television
Four Corners to use footage shot outside Woodside CEO’s home despite outrage over the incident
The ABC’s Four Corners program will prominently feature controversial footage of a protest shot outside the home of Woodside Energy boss Meg O’Neill, despite the incident being widely condemned and triggering an internal review which indicated the public broadcaster had lied, reports The Australian’s Cameron England.
Rather than backing away from using the footage of the protest at Ms O’Neill’s house early in the morning on August 1, the program has doubled down, framing its episode, entitled “Escalation’’, around the incident.
‘It hurts that it ended’: Grant Denyer pulls out of Amazing Race Australia after collapsing
Grant Denyer says he felt embarrassed that his health let him down on The Amazing Race Australia, reports News Corp’s Jonathon Moran.
Drifting in and out of consciousness, the Gold Logie winning TV star was forced to pull out of the competition in just the second episode, diagnosed with “extreme heat stroke” in sweltering 45 degree heat in Delhi.
Sports Media
Why Matt Shirvington left FOX Sports for Seven
When Matt Shirvington left Foxtel and joined Seven in 2020, it may well have been his best TV career move so far, reports TV Tonight’s David Knox.
After a decade at FOX Sports, he changed allegiances and was recently installed as the new co-host on Sunrise as successor to David Koch.
Social Media
‘This Is a False Advertisement’: X Ads are being challenged by reader context
Fact-checking notes on X are making some advertisers more cautious about spending on the social-media platform, reports The Wall Street Journal’s Patrick Coffee and Megan Graham.
X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2021 began allowing a group of volunteers to collaborate on “Community Notes” meant to provide additional context or information about both unpaid posts and paid ads on the platform. Notes first became visible to all Twitter users in 2022, but their prevalence has increased significantly this year.
Why is 20-year-old Linkedin now cool? We’ve not changed, says editor-in-chief
Linkedin, which turned 20 earlier this year, is having a bit of a moment. For most of those two decades, the site’s reputation was decidedly cringe. Users might go months without visiting, returning periodically only to update their CVs. Linkedin was where you went when you were “excited to announce some personal news!”, but not much else, reports The Press Gazette’s Jim Edwards.
See Also: LinkedIn reflects on achievements for 20 year anniversary
Then, in August, the well-known Bloomberg tech writer Sarah Frier announced in a headline, “Sorry, But LinkedIn Is Cool Now”. The story hit a nerve and got picked up by Slate, Axios, Yahoo! and others.