Roundup: SAS Australia, Donald Trump, WGA Awards + more

SAS Australia

• Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission, Daily Mirror, Beyond Productions, Grant Broadcasters + Dale Thomas and Heath Shaw

Business of Media

Donald Trump to launch his own social media platform

Former President Donald Trump may have been banned from Twitter and Facebook following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, but his senior advisor has shared that Trump is set to make a return to social media with his own platform, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s Lexy Perez.

Speaking on Fox’s Media Buzz on Sunday, Jason Miller said that “we’re going to see President Trump returning to social media in probably about two or three months here with his own platform.” “This is something that I think will be the hottest ticket in social media. It’s going to completely redefine the game,” he added.

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Queensland watchdog sought phone records while demanding journalist reveal source

The Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission obtained a warrant to access a journalist’s telecommunications data at the same time it was attempting to force a journalist to disclose a police source, reports Guardian Australia’s Josh Taylor.

The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) annual report for 2019-20 released last week, revealed the Queensland CCC was the only state or federal agency to seek a journalist information warrant in 2019-20.

It comes as the commission attempts to force a TV journalist, known in court documents only as ‘F’, to disclose who told him about a pending murder arrest in 2018, allowing a camera crew to capture the arrest.

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News Brands

UK newspaper publisher to tell journalists to permanently work from home

One of the UK’s leading news publishers is calling time on the traditional newspaper office, with the owner of the Daily Mirror set to tell the vast majority of its journalists that they will permanently work from home in future, reports The Guardian’s Jim Waterson.

Reach, which also owns the Daily Express, Daily Star and hundreds of regional newspapers around the UK and Ireland, will inform three-quarters of its staff on Friday morning that they will no longer be expected to come to the office full-time. Dozens of mid-sized towns will lose their remaining newspaper office, with staff having to commute to the nearest major city if they want to work at a company desk.

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Radio

Barry Keohane joins Grant Broadcasters in regional content role

Grant Broadcasters has appointed Barry Keohane as the new regional content director for Victoria and South Australia.

Most recently Keohane has spent three years as the head lecturer at the Australian Film Television and Radio School. Prior to that he spent five years in radio in Adelaide, firstly at ABC Radio as content director before moving to ARN as content director at Mix 102.3 and Cruise 1323.

Keohane said: “Radio is my number one passion, and even though I’ve enjoyed the last few months doing my own thing mixed in with some study, I knew when the right opportunity came along I would jump at it. I’m excited to be working with Grant Broadcasters and I’m looking forward to helping the stations deliver on their Leaders in Local philosophy.”

“We were fortunate to have attracted a number of highly skilled candidates for this role but Barry’s experience in regional, metro and international radio combined with his coaching at AFTRS made him the obvious choice for the job,” said Ryan Rathbone, Grant Broadcasters group content director.

Television

SAS Australia team in quarantine before filming

Instructors for SAS Australia have arrived back in Australia to quarantine ahead of filming a new series for Seven, reports TV Tonight.

“Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride they say!” Ant Middleton posted on Instagram along with the hashtag “#Australiainbound” along with various other motivational comments.

Joining him are DS staff Jason Fox, Matthew Ollerton and Mark Billingham, who all arrived on the weekend.

Filming is due to get underway next month, although it isn’t confirmed if Jindabyne will again serve as the key location. But shooting in Autumn means there is little chance of snow being a feature this time round. The four will also test challenges on site ahead of filming.

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Beyond’s John Luscombe appoints creative director, factual for global role

Beyond Productions UK has appointed award-winning executive producer and showrunner Hamo Forsyth to the new role of creative director, factual.

Forsyth will report into Beyond Productions’ president John Luscombe, and will work closely with Damon Pattison, also a creative director in the UK office, who focuses primarily on formatted entertainment and factual entertainment.

Hamo will be charged with leading the development of factual content for UK commissions but will also work with the development teams in the Australian and US offices on co-production opportunities.

Hamo’s most recent projects include showrunner/executive producer for Wall to Wall on Apple TV’s landmark series Becoming You and co-executive producer for Nutopia on a major, yet-to-be-named, documentary series for a global streaming platform. He was executive producer and head of programmes at The Garden Productions for six years, working on a range of shows including the BAFTA-nominated and Bulldog Award-winning titles 24 Hours in Police Custody and 24 Hours in A&E.

John Luscombe said: “We are delighted to welcome Hamo to the Beyond Productions teams in London and Manchester (Beyond Productions North) and excited to broaden our UK focus to include specialist factual content. The UK office, which only came into being mid-2020 when Beyond acquired Seven Studios UK, has hit the ground running with the hugely successful Pooch Perfect for BBC One and My Lottery Dream Home International, which is launching next month on HGTV in the US. However, the time is now right to expand our offer. Hamo has an impressive track record in factual television and his experience will perfectly compliment Damon Pattison’s in formats. Our UK office could not be in better hands with these two and is now well positioned for growth.”

Dale Thomas and Heath Shaw to ‘call out crap’ in new footy show

Two members of Collingwood’s legendary ‘ratpack’, Dale Thomas and Heath Shaw, are spearheading a new footy show which promises to “pull people up if they are rolling out crap” reports News Corp’s Fiona Byrne.

Thomas and Shaw will front The Heater and Daisy show for Channel 7 which will be full of fearless, forward and frank opinions on the round that was, as they are let loose with a camera and microphone.

“Essentially we are saying the sh-t we couldn’t say when we played, the stuff when you got asked a question in a press conference or in a media interview and you had to sit there and roll out the company line,” Thomas said.

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Entertainment

WGA Awards: ‘Promising Young Woman’ wins Original Screenplay, ‘Borat 2’ takes Adapted Prize

Ted Lasso dominated the TV awards with two wins as Desus & Mero won best comedy/variety talk series over reigning champ Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, reports The Hollywood Reporter‘s Hilary Lewis and Borys Kit.

Promising Young Woman and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm topped the 2021 Writers Guild Awards, winning best original and adapted screenplay, respectively.

Accepting the award for adapted screenplay, Borat’s Sacha Baron Cohen quipped of the film’s many nominees, “I can’t help but think that we won it because 60 percent of the Writers Guild worked on this movie.”

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