Business of Media
Veteran political journalist David Barnett dies, aged 90
Veteran federal political journalist David Barnett, who spearheaded the first official Canberra bureau of Australian Associated Press more than 50 years ago, has died aged 90, reports Nine Publishing’s Kaaren Morrissey.
Barnett became the national newswire’s first bureau chief in 1971, overseeing two journalists in what is now called Old Parliament House.
He was just in time to report on one of the most seismic shifts in Australian politics, the 1972 election of Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam.
Barnett died in Canberra’s Calvary Hospital on Saturday after a short admission.
John Tingle remembered as prolific broadcaster, respected politician
John Saxon Tingle, who left journalism in the 1990s to found the Shooters Party, has been remembered as a prolific broadcaster and respected politician, after he died last week aged 90, reports News Corp’s Nicholas Jensen.
Born in 1931, Tingle launched his journalism career at 18 after leaving Sydney for the Riverina district, where he worked as a broadcaster at 2QN Deniliquin.
Two years later he moved to the ABC and over 17 years rose to senior positions within the national broadcaster at its old headquarters in William St, including TV News director and later News Service chief of staff.
TikTok Australia revenue surges as Facebook rivalry heats up
TikTok, nipping at the heels of Facebook parent company Meta which forecasts tough times for digital advertising, delivered a massive surge in Australian revenue last year, reports Nine Publishing’s Max Mason.
Last month, TikTok Australia reported a 220 per cent jump in 2021 revenue to nearly $US50 million ($71.8 million), up from $US15.5 million from November 2019 to December 2020, according to accounts lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. TikTok launched its local arm in Australia in November 2019.
TikTok globally is estimated to have raked in $US4 billion in revenue last year and is forecast to hit nearly $US12 billion this year – more than Twitter and Snapchat combined.
TikTok’s local operations expanded aggressively between 2020 and 2021, illustrated by employment expenses jumping to $US23.2 million, up from $US6.2 million. Superannuation expenses rose to $US3.3 million from $US515,138 in the previous year.
Advertising, promotion and project expenses lifted to $US12.6 million, up from $US4.8 million.
Advertising slowdown spreads beyond tech giants to hit TV networks, publishers
U.S. television networks and news publishers are feeling the effects of a slowdown in the advertising market, the latest indication that an ad-spending retrenchment previously flagged by giant technology companies is spreading, report The Wall Street Journal’s Suzanne Vranica and Alexandra Bruell.
Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. home of cable channels including CNN, TNT and the Food Network, on Thursday cut its outlook for this year and next in part because of a slowdown in advertising. In recent days, the owners of outlets including the CBS television network, the New York Times and USA Today all said their ad revenue was under pressure during the latest quarter.
“Given the less-favorable macro environment, we are seeing softer demand in the scatter market,” said Gunnar Wiedenfels, chief financial officer of Warner Bros. Discovery, referring to the period when TV ads are sold closer to air date.
News Brands
Only ‘ideology or fear’ would push a government to attack ABC, Anthony Albanese says
Only a government ruled by ideology or fear would attack the ABC, Anthony Albanese has said at the 90th birthday celebration of the public broadcaster in Sydney, reports The Guardian’s Amanda Meade.
In a thinly veiled attack on the former Coalition government’s fraught relationship with the ABC, the prime minister on Friday evening said a strong independent broadcaster was vital to democracy and brought Australia together as a nation.
“The health of our democracy is underpinned by truth and by the strength of our cultural identity – how we see ourselves as a people and what unifies us in all the splendour of our diversity,” Albanese said.
Television
Streaming merger could herald consolidation, fewer services to pay for
You know how you’re always complaining that there are too many streaming services and it seems like you have to pay for about five different platforms just to watch the 10 shows you hear about? That may be about to change. The long-promised consolidation of the sector seems to finally be happening, reports News Corp’s Wenlei Ma.
Warner Bros Discovery has announced it will combine the media conglomerate’s two existing streaming services, HBO Max and Discovery+, into one service.
While neither HBO Max nor Discovery+ operates in Australia, the significance of today’s news could herald forthcoming changes within the industry that will eventually affect locally available services.
In Australia, there are close to two dozen subscription video on demand platforms. The high number of services has led to frustrations among consumers who are asked to shell out more and more money to access a fractured slate of programming.
See More: HBO Max and Discovery+ to merge as economic instability bites
Online petition from fans says the ‘current format of Big Brother Australia is unsatisfactory to us’
Frustrated fans of Big Brother Australia have launched an online petition demanding that producers and Channel Seven stop meddling with and ruining the format of what once was a reality TV mega hit, reports News Corp’s Fiona Byrne.
As Seven confirmed it would press ahead with a new season of Big Brother following motley ratings for the most recent season, passionate fans opened a Go Fund Me petition seeking to rally support from other BB tragics to apply pressure to production house Endemol Shine Australia and Seven.
“The current format of Big Brother Australia is unsatisfactory to us, the viewers and signatures of this petition,” it reads going on to call for more live streaming “whereby viewers can see what is actually happening between housemates”, and for the public to vote housemates out of the house.
“The show is for the viewers and only the viewers should be voting housemates out of the house,” the petition reads.
Sports Media
‘Plucked from thin air’: Paramount plays down AFL bid, eyes future deals
The Australian boss of US entertainment giant Paramount has played down talk it offered the AFL $600 million for its broadcast rights, but said the company was chasing deals that were in its commercial interests, reports Nine Publishing’s Zoe Samios.
Beverley McGarvey, co-executive vice president and chief content officer at Paramount, said sport was a bigger priority for the company, which owns Network 10, since the launch of its streaming service, Paramount+, last August. However, she conceded the first year of Paramount’s major broadcast rights deal with the A-League and W-League had been challenging due to the rescheduling of matches.
“Some of those [AFL] numbers are plucked from thin air and don’t really mean anything without context,” McGarvey said. “Like, is that [$600 million] for 20 years? There’s nothing we are going to talk about right now. Most of the speculation that we’ve read doesn’t feel super accurate.”
“We always look at sport as a tactical opportunity. The level of that opportunity has probably changed with Paramount+ coming online because we have more platforms and more capacity to get content in front of our audiences, which allows us to monetise things differently.”