Business of Media
Rolf Harris dies aged 93 after health battle
Rolf Harris has died aged 93. The Australian sex offender, who enjoyed a decades-long career in showbiz until his arrest on indecent assault charges in 2013, died after a battle with neck cancer, reports News Corp’s Lexie Cartwright.
But while the information was first publicly revealed on Tuesday, his death certificate shows he died several weeks ago.
On May 11, speculation was rife that Harris was gravely ill after an ambulance was photographed outside his UK home.
However, it was only on May 23 that Harris’ passing was confirmed.
A death certificate from the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, the local authority in Berkshire, west of London, where Harris lived, is dated May 23. But the date of his death is listed weeks earlier, on May 10, the day before the ambulance was spotted.
The gap between his death and it being recorded has meant the family have been able to hold a funeral for Harris and cremate him away from the public eye.
Hoyts seeing some action from private equity
Pacific Equity Partners and Anchorage Capital Partners are the two private equity firms short-listed to buy the Hoyts cinema company, but offers from both are believed to be below the asking price, reports The Australian’s Bridget Carter.
It is understood that of the two proposals that were received, PEP offered the highest amount, but now the big test is how keen its Chinese owners are to divest the business.
Hoyts has 430 screens and is owned by China’s Wanda Group.
In the past year, it generated about $150m of annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. But sources believe Wanda wants more than $900m for the business, whereas suitors would probably pay around $700m.
First round bids for the business were received several weeks ago in a sale process run by Credit Suisse.
Sources say between three and 10 parties lobbed offers with a mixture of both local and offshore buyers, as well as trade players and private equity.
Facebook owner Meta sells Giphy at a loss of more than $260m
The owner of Facebook has taken a more than $260m loss on Giphy – selling off the gif search engine to the stock image service Shutterstock for $53m after the deal was blocked by regulators, reports The Guardian’s Alex Hern.
Meta said on Tuesday it is selling Giphy, the business it acquired in November 2021 for about $315m but was blocked from completing the purchase in 2022 by the UK’s competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Shutterstock is paying cash for the acquisition, which comes with an agreement to ensure continued access to Meta’s platforms, as well as Giphy’s existing user base, which comes direct to the site and via integrations with other apps that offer animated gif search engines.
The Shutterstock chief executive, Paul Hennessy, said the acquisition was “an exciting next step in Shutterstock’s journey as an end-to-end creative platform”.
Meta’s acquisition of the gif search engine was already at a substantial discount from the company’s peak valuation of about $600m in 2016, a reflection of the decreasing interest in animated gifs as a method of self-expression on the internet.
News Brands
News Corp executive chairman Michael Miller says ABC should focus on its ‘internal problems’ after Stan Grant exit
The executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, Michael Miller, says the ABC should focus on addressing its own serious internal problems — namely, allegations of entrenched racism within the public broadcaster — ahead of criticising rival media organisations over their news coverage, report The Australian’s James Madden and Sophie Elsworth.
“The ABC needs to stop passing the buck and blaming others for its own internal problems,” Miller said on Tuesday.
“ABC director of news Justin Stevens has made a raft of unsubstantiated claims about News Corp’s reporting of how the ABC covered the coronation, and the ensuing fallout that Stan Grant says contributed to his decision to stand down as host of Q+A.
“Stevens’ misleading claims are being repeated across the various broadcast arms of the ABC, and he should correct the record.”
Stevens accused News Corp of running a “campaign against the ABC”, and suggested the media company’s recent news coverage of King Charles III’s coronation had contributed to Stan Grant’s decision to stand down as host of Q+A.
The coronation coverage has so far drawn more than 1700 complaints from ABC viewers, with the majority of the negative feedback centred around the 45-minute panel discussion that was dominated by anti-monarchy sentiment in the immediate lead-up to the coronation service.
Television
Netflix expands crackdown on password sharing around the world
Netflix on Tuesday expanded its crackdown on password sharing to the United States and more than 100 other countries, alerting users that their accounts cannot be shared for free outside of their households, reports Reuters.
The streaming video pioneer has been looking for new ways to make money as it faces signs of market saturation, with efforts including limits on password borrowing and a new ad-supported option.
Netflix said it was sending emails about account sharing to customers in 103 countries and territories, including the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore, Mexico and Brazil.
The emails state that a Netflix account should only be used in one household. Paying customers can add a member outside of their homes for an additional fee. In the US, the fee is $8 per month.
Members can also transfer a person’s profile so the user can keep their viewing history and recommendations.
Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story charts the rise of ’a larrikin and a maverick’
Superstars Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, Sting, Ed Sheeran and Kylie Minogue have sung the praises of Michael Gudinski in a documentary film about the late music industry legend, reports News Corp’s Nui Te Koha.
The movie, titled Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story, which traces the trailblazing feats of the Mushroom Group boss, will have its world premiere in Melbourne on August 10.
In a trailer for the film, Springsteen, Grohl, Sting, Sheeran, Minogue, and Jimmy Barnes pay heartfelt tribute to Gudinski, and his larger-than-life ways.
“Michael had this unique gravitas around him that attracted people,” Sheeran says in the film.
Springsteen added: “Michael was an old time showman. He was loud and brash, but he invited you into his life in a personal and intimate way.”
Max Loses HBO title as rebranded service launches
On Tueday, Warner Bros. Discovery officially transformed HBO Max into Max. The rebranded and refreshed streaming service, which was first unveiled in April at an event on the company’s Burbank lot, features a slate of new original programming (known as Max Originals) and an updated user interface that includes content hubs for HBO and HGTV, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s J. Clara Chan.
The transition began rolling out late in the evening on Monday and early on Tuesday, which did result in a small spike of user issues reported on Down Detector in the early hours around 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. But the rollout is expected to continue into Tuesday across the U.S.