Business of Media
End of an era as TV Week no longer runs Logie Awards
After 62 years TV Week will no longer manage the Logie Awards.
Instead, it will remain the official partner for the event, to be managed externally by an events company, Rizer, whilst still retaining ownership of the awards, TV Tonight reports.
Rizer, which has produced the red carpet and other event elements of the Logies for the last 7 years, will act as an independent body to manage network submissions, determine the final nominees and manage voting across Outstanding and Popular categories.
Nine continues as broadcaster for the event which is expected to return this year after a 2 year absence -Nine produces the TV presentation.
Over its six decades the Logies have endured many changes and publisher changes including under Southdown Press, ACP Magazines and until recently with Germany-based Bauer Media, who had a strong affection for television. In 2020 its Australian empire was sold to Are Media, publishing arm of Sydney-based private equity firm Mercury Capital.
Are Media has spent the last 12 months assessing the future of the event and its ongoing management.
Seven settles with man wrongly identified as Cleo Smith’s abductor
Seven West Media has reached a confidential settlement with an Aboriginal man wrongly identified as the accused kidnapper of four-year-old Cleo Smith, reports News Corp’s Paige Taylor.
Seven came to identify the wrong person in part because Flowers was known to many in his community by his mother’s surname Kelly. His Facebook account was Terrance WB Kelly. As gossip spread like wildfire online on the morning of November 3, some people with distant or no connections to the young father wrongly concluded that he had been arrested.
On Wednesday, WA Chief Justice Peter Quinlan entered a judgment in Flowers’ favour and the matter was otherwise settled confidentially. There was no order as to costs.
Flowers‘ lawyers, O’Brien Criminal and Civil Solicitors, published a statement that they and their client “are very happy with the settlement and that Flowers is looking forward to getting on with his life and enjoying time with his wife and baby son”.
SAS soldier contradicts Ben Roberts-Smith on crucial detail
An SAS soldier has contradicted Ben Roberts-Smith on a crucial detail about an alleged war crime killing, reports News Corp’s Perry Duffin.
The Federal Court on Wednesday heard evidence from an SAS soldier known as Person 42 for national security reasons, who told the court he was part of an SAS assault on a Taliban compound known as Whiskey 108 in 2009.
The SAS had stormed the compound after it was flattened by a massive bomb and Roberts-Smith killed an insurgent with a prosthetic leg during the battle, the court has heard.
The nature of the killing – either fair fight or criminal execution – has become a central dispute in the trial. Mr Roberts-Smith has told the court he shot the man with a fake leg after spotting him outside the Whiskey 108 compound.
Out with the Facebookers. In with the Metamates.
Google’s employees are called Googlers. Amazon’s workers are known as Amazonians. Yahoo’s employees were Yahoos, reports SMH‘s Mike Isaac and Sheera Frenkel.
So it was a conundrum for employees at Facebook, long known as Facebookers, when the company renamed itself Meta late last year.
The terminology is now no longer in question. At a meeting on Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and Meta’s chief executive, announced a new name for his company’s employees: Metamates.
Zuckerberg introduced the term as part of an overhaul of Meta’s corporate values, which he said needed updating because of the company’s new direction. In October, he took many by surprise by shifting Facebook toward the so-called metaverse, in which different computing platforms are connected to one another across the internet. The move de-emphasised the company’s social networking apps, like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, which have been under scrutiny for privacy and data challenges, hateful content and misinformation.
Agencies
Mediahub appointed as AkzoNobel’s global digital media agency of record
Interpublic Group agency Mediahub has been named as AkzoNobel’s global digital media agency of record (AOR) following a six-month review.
AkzoNobel – a Dutch multinational company, owns brands such as Dulux, Sikkens, Hammerite and Alabastine – ran the review through MediaPath and will continue work with Mediacom for its offline media planning and buying.
The move is part of a drive led by AkzoNobel to revamp its approach to media.
A key component of the brief is data strategy, and the agency will help consolidate the company’s technology stack and develop a future-proofed approach to digital media.
For this reason, IPG’s customer intelligence company Acxiom was front and centre in Mediahub’s pitch.
Led from Mediahub’s London office with support from regional and local hub teams in the Netherlands, Singapore, Argentina, and Russia, this is the first time that AkzoNobel has appointed a digital media AOR.
Optimizely and Google Cloud announce partnership
Optimizely have announced its partnership with Google Cloud.
The multi-year agreement between the platforms indicates a commitment by the two companies to collaborate on innovative opportunities, bring advanced, digital-first marketing solutions to market, and move Optimizely’s market-leading experimentation solutions to Google Cloud.
Customers benefit from the new partnership from working with the de facto leader in experimentation for enterprise companies and Google Cloud’s trusted, secure infrastructure and capabilities in AI, ML and analytics.
Optimizely’s Web Experimentation and Full Stack Experimentation will allow marketers to take the guesswork out of delivering personalised, meaningful engagements. Optimizely will continue to fuel best-in-class experiences for its customers as they move to Google Cloud.
The companies will also coordinate a joint go-to-market and sales execution strategy to seamlessly deliver experimentation solutions to customers around the world. As part of the multi-year agreement, Optimizely and Google Cloud will collaborate closely on co-innovation, developing new and expanded digital offerings that bring the best experience possible to new and existing customers.
Television
The Newsreader sells to Europe, North America, Asia, Latin America
Acclaimed ABC period drama The Newsreader has been sold to a slew of international broadcasters, reports TV tonight.
Entertainment One (eOne) has completed sales to BBC (UK), ARTE (France and Germany), RTE (Ireland), Viaplay (the Nordic and Baltic regions, Poland and The Netherlands), Cosmo (Spain), Filmin (Portugal and 2nd window in Spain), Now TV (Hong Kong), TELUS (Canada) and NBCUniversal International Networks & Direct-To-Consumer (Latin America).
Starring Anna Torv and Sam Reid, the Werner Film series recently featured fourth in Variety’s top 13 list of The Best International TV Shows of 2021.
Created and written by Michael Lucas (Offspring, Five Bedrooms) the cast also includes Robert Taylor, Stephen Peacocke, William McInnes, Chum Ehelepola, Michelle Lim Davidson, Chai Hansen and Marg Downey.
Fetch to drop Spike TV
Spike will be dropped from the Fetch TV platform at the of the month, TV tonight reports.
Spike was a ‘virtual channel’ added in 2016, which saw Fetch buying the content from ViacomCBS. Titles included Bellator MMA, Lip Sync Battle and Police Interceptors.
But it will be dropped after no longer being economically viable.
While Fetch has not increased the price of $6 channel packs since they launched over 5 years ago, the price of content has increased as more channels and streaming services are competing for access to shows.
Sport Media
Age reporter Caroline Wilson slams the Melbourne Press Club over its decision to “annul” sports award
Veteran football reporter Caroline Wilson has criticised the Melbourne Press Club for its “hasty” decision to strip her colleague of a prestigious journalism award and said it has “disappointed” a lot of people in the media industry, reports News Corp’s Sophie Elsworth.
Speaking on her podcast, Don’t Shoot the Messenger, Wilson who was former chief football writer at The Age, questioned the MPC’s handling of the decision to annul Sam McClure’s award.
“The thing that’s happened in my world and the media world is that the Melbourne Press Club in, I believe, an incredibly hasty and not following procedures correctly decision, have removed Sam McClure’s Quill award which he won last year for his coverage on the Adelaide Crows’ Collective Mind’s story,” she said in the podcast.
“I know it’s disappointed a lot of people and not just Age and Channel 9 journalists.”
Wilson’s comments were made on Tuesday and at the same time MPC was holding its extraordinary general meeting.