Business of Media
Murdoch media merge was news to Australian News Corp executives
News Corp’s most senior Australian executives woke up on Saturday morning to discover that Rupert Murdoch is seeking to recombine the Fox and News Corp businesses he split almost a decade ago, report Nine Publishing’s Edmund Tadros, Neil Chenoweth, and Mark Di Stefano.
The tightly-held plan, in the works for the last eight months and only known to a group of about 10 senior family insiders, had been broken by the News Corp-owned Wall Street Journal just after 7am on Saturday morning Australian time.
The leak, about a month ahead of schedule, forced Fox and News Corp to rush out almost identical press releases confirming the groups had formed separate special committees to explore reuniting the companies after a request from Murdoch and the Murdoch Family Trust.
The plan was known informally as “the project” by the small number of people who were working on it. Lachlan Murdoch’s key lieutenant Siobhan McKenna was one of the non-Murdoch members of this exclusive group.
See Also: Murdoch controlled News Corp and Fox Corp investigate possibility of a merger
NACC bill must offer more protection for journalists, says media coalition
The proposed national anti-corruption commission has been met with cautious optimism by a coalition of Australian media outlets dedicated to the protection of public interest journalism, with the group welcoming greater protection of whistleblowers amid wider concerns about legislative powers that expose reporters to imprisonment, reports News Corp’s James Madden.
Australia’s Right to Know coalition – whose signatories include Nine, Seven, Ten, News Corp, the Guardian, AAP, public broadcasters ABC and SBS, as well as industry trade union the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance – lodged a submission last Friday to the parliamentary committee that is reviewing the NACC bill.
While the group’s submission broadly welcomes the federal government’s recognition of the need for stronger protections for journalists’ sources, the ARTK coalition strongly objects to the bill’s lack of provision for media outlets to contest the application for search warrants issued on newsrooms and reporters’ homes.
The push for contested warrants has been one of the core priorities for the ARTK group since it was formed in 2007.
‘I write what they tell me to’: Iran’s crackdown on journalists intensifies
As nationwide protests enter their fourth week in Iran, the government is increasing its crackdown on activists and journalists. On 22 September Niloofar Hamedi, an Iranian journalist, was arrested after posting a picture she took of the parents of Mahsa Amini hugging each other in a Tehran hospital on the day of their daughter’s death, reports The Guardian’s Deepa Parent.
Amini, 22, died in police custody on 16 September after she was arrested for not wearing her hijab properly, which sparked the protests that then spread across the country.
Mohammad Ali Kamfirouzi, Hamedi’s lawyer, tweeted the news of her client’s arrest and confirmed she was in solitary confinement in Evin prison, where she remains. Since then, at least 40 journalists have been arrested in Iran, according to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Citing inside sources, the report said journalists were arrested at home and their devices confiscated.
Foxtel clinches NBCUniversal content deal as Stan shifts strategy
US film studio giant NBCUniversal will give the majority of its programs and films to pay TV and streaming company Foxtel as incumbent streaming partner Stan looks to alternative ways to acquire content from Hollywood for subscribers, reports Nine Publishing’s Zoe Samios.
Multiple media sources, who spoke anonymously because the talks are confidential, said Foxtel is on the verge of securing a long-term deal for the majority of NBCU’s programs, including content from Sky Studios, online streaming service Peacock and a back catalogue of programs such as Parks & Recreation and Brooklyn 99. The deal was being finalised and could be completed within the week, the sources said.
Other media sources said Seven West Media is expected to pick up the free-to-air rights for some of the content slate, including reality TV content which typically runs on Hayu. Foxtel, Seven and NBCUniversal declined to comment.
Incumbent Stan, which has a contract that expires this year, was involved in talks to secure programming for its subscribers, but sources said the service and its parent company Nine Entertainment Co walked away several weeks ago over concerns of price and clauses that give NBCUniversal the power to terminate and launch its own service, Peacock, at any time. Nine declined to comment.
News Brands
News Corp’s London broadsheet The Sunday Times celebrates 200 years
An editorial in a special edition of The Sunday Times starts with:
We are about to celebrate an important birthday: The Sunday Times is turning 200.
The paper was founded in 1822 by Henry White, who set out to expose the “secret springs” by which government was enacted. Over the past two centuries we have done that and more, revealing Kim Philby’s Soviet treachery, the thalidomide scandal, the truth of Princess Diana’s dysfunctional relationship with Prince Charles, Lance Armstrong’s doping and more recently the government’s chaotic handling of the early days of the pandemic.
The freedom to pursue ground-breaking journalism has never been more important. Around the world, from Brazil to Beijing, autocratic regimes constrain the right of self-expression. The rise of social media poses profound challenges to established media and to democracy itself. Linked to social media is the increasing tyranny of the culture wars. It now takes bravery to publish contentious views.
Radio
Abbie Chatfield ‘baffled’ by radio’s refusal to reprimand Kyle Sandilands
Radio host Abbie Chatfield has questioned why FM king Kyle Sandilands is not reprimanded for offensive remarks he makes about people living with a disability, reports News Corp’s Mikaela Wilkes.
Chatfield, a former Bachelorette and considered by some as radio’s fastest rising star, said she was “baffled” that Sandilands was able to continue making remarks such as “spaz” on air, saying it was continually “disappointing” and “disgusting.”
“I have no idea (how Sandilands hasn’t been cancelled),” Chatfield told The Daily Telegraph.
“I don’t know why he’s not at least being reprimanded.
“I don’t know why advertisers still align.”
Television
One of Australia’s biggest TV producers is predicting a talent crisis
Australia is rushing towards a shortfall in filmmaking talent within the next five years, says acclaimed producer Tony Ayres, as the demise of Neighbours and other long-running TV series leaves nowhere for upcoming writers, directors and other key creatives to develop their skills, reports Nine Publishing’s Karl Quinn.
Ayres – whose hit shows include Glitch, Stateless, The Slap, Barracuda, Seven Types of Ambiguity and Clickbait – says that while the local industry is enjoying an unprecedented boom in high-end production, much of it with the international market in mind, those shows offer few opportunities for emerging writers, directors and producers to hone their craft.
“My concern is that there is a systemic flaw, which is that if we only do the kind of top-end, bigger-budget, more elite work, there is going to be a gap in about five years, when one generation moves on and another generation has to emerge,” says Ayres. “Who are those people going to be if they haven’t had the opportunities to learn?
“There is a real and significant gap in our production output [which was once filled by things] like Neighbours, great shows like Packed To the Rafters, Offspring, All Saints – the basic, longer, returning series, which gave younger directors an opportunity to direct, gave newer writers an opportunity to write.”
Big Brother winner Reggie Bird reveals heartbreaking health diagnosis
Two-time Big Brother winner Reggie Bird has taken to social media with a heartbreaking health update, reports News Corp’s Lexie Cartwright.
The 48-year-old Gold Coast-based TV personality, who won the reality series in 2003 and again this year, told her 45,000 followers she had recently been diagnosed with Usher syndrome, a disease which impacts both hearing and vision.
Bird, who was first declared legally blind in 2008 after being diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, shared the heartbreaking health update on Thursday.
“It’s not what I wanted to hear,” Bird said in a video as she broke down in tears. “It’s the worst thing that you could have. I’m going to be deaf-blind.”
Sports Media
Fight begins over access to major sporting events
The federal government is planning sweeping changes to sports broadcasting rules which could lead to big sporting events disappearing from free-to-air broadcasters and moving to subscription streaming services such as Foxtel, Amazon Prime and Stan, reports Nine Publishing’s Edmund Tadros.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has issued a consultation paper which flags potential reforms to the anti-siphoning scheme, which keeps a small list of sporting events “of national importance and cultural significance” such as the AFL and NRL finals on free-to-air TV, while emphasising that Australians must continue to have free access to watch these events.
It is the modern meaning of “free access” that will be at the heart of the battle over what happens to the scheme. The rules, established when the only TV viewing options for sports fans were free-to-air television or a pricey pay TV subscription, must now be reconciled with a world where widespread internet access provides dozens of ways to access and watch content.
Peter V’Landys tips next NRL TV rights will eclipse AFL’s Seven/News Corp haul
The NRL has become a $600 million empire with the governing body on track to post a record profit in excess of $50m – two years after the Covid crisis almost sent League Central bankrupt, reports News Corp’s Peter Badel.
Regarding NRL TV rights, there is a view the AFL destroyed the NRL in TV rights broadcasting negotiations.
The AFL recently announced a seven-year, $4.5 billion deal between 2025-31, but League chairman Peter V’Landys scoffed at suggestions the NRL undervalued their product with Fox and Channel 9.
“It’s nonsense, the time periods (of the AFL and NRL broadcasting deals) are different for a start,” he said.
“The majority of the money they (the AFL) are getting is between 2027-31 … we haven’t done a deal for those years yet, so how can people compare something when there is nothing to compare at the moment?
“People don’t understand that the AFL took a bigger cut than what we did during Covid from a broadcasting perspective.
“When the time is right, we will be looking at increasing our broadcast value.
“The AFL don’t do things better than us. We will beat them.”