Original article by Sophie Elsworth The Australian – Page: 21 : 9-Aug-21
Sky News Australia CEO Paul Whittaker has asked YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki for a clearer explanation as to why 21 of Sky’s videos were removed from its platform and why it was banned from uploading content for seven days. Whittaker contends that YouTube’s policies on COVID-19 are "internally inconsistent and incapable of compliance", while he has asked for an explanation of remarks made by YouTube to other media groups as to why Sky was suspended. YouTube was apparently quoted as saying it was suspended for "content that denies the existence of COVID-19". Whittaker says Sky absolutely rejects that suggestion.
Original article by Miranda Ward The Australian Financial Review – Page: 28 : 9-Aug-21
The Tokyo Olympic Games have been a ratings boon for the Seven Network, with new data showing that 19.95 million Australians watched its coverage of the first 11 days of the showcase event. Viewers have also embraced Seven’s streaming coverage, watching more 4.6 billion minutes via 7plus during the first 14 days of the Olympics. Seven now boasts some 9.1 million registered users of 7plus, up from 6.4 million prior to the Olympics. Chief digital officer Gereurd Roberts says the strong growth in uptake of the free streaming service demonstrates the power of the Olympics and the success of Seven’s strategy.
CORPORATES SEVEN NETWORK LIMITED, SEVEN WEST MEDIA LIMITED – ASX SWM, 7PLUS
Original article by Miranda Ward The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 4-Aug-21
Global media giant News Corporation has struck a deal to buy Oil Price Information Service, which provides referencing pricing and news and analytics for the energy and renewables sectors. News Corp will pay $US1.15bn ($1.56bn) for OPIS, which will become part of its Dow Jones Professional Information Business. OPIS is forecast to post revenue of around $US129m in the year to 30 November. News Corp has made a number of other acquisitions during 2021.
CORPORATES NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, OIL PRICE INFORMATION SERVICE, DOW JONES AND COMPANY
Original article by Sophie Elsworth, James Madden The Australian – Page: 3 : 23-Jul-21
The ABC has come under scrutiny after new figures showed that its headcount rose by 2.8 per cent in 2020-21, with the addition of 120 additional employees. This includes 95 temporary positions. ABC MD David Anderson recently told a Senate committee that he did not think the public broadcaster’s headcount had increased in the last financial year. Liberal senator Ben Small says the ABC has been exposed as deceiving the public on resourcing, and notes that it is taking on additional staff at a time when its commercial rivals are cutting jobs.
CORPORATES AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA
Original article by Miranda Ward The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 21-Jul-21
Media identities have praised industry veteran David Leckie, who has passed away after a long illness. Leckie became CEO of the Nine Network in 1994, after holding a number of roles at the media group. He joined the Seven Network in 2003, and it subsequently displaced Nine as Australia’s top rating free-to-air network under his leadership. Seven West Media’s CEO James Warburton has described Leckie as a "true legend of the Australian media industry", while Nine CEO Mike Sneesby says he was a "giant of television".
CORPORATES SEVEN WEST MEDIA LIMITED – ASX SWM, SEVEN NETWORK LIMITED, NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, NINE NETWORK AUSTRALIA LIMITED
Original article by Sophie Elsworth The Australian – Page: 17 : 19-Jul-21
Sky News Australia CEO Paul Whittaker says many viewers have discovered the pay-TV group’s content during the pandemic and continued to watch it. He notes that a growing number of viewers are accessing Sky News content via digital platforms rather than Foxtel. An online survey undertaken by Hoop Group shows that Sky News videos were viewed 95.6 million times on YouTube in June, a year-on-year increase of 248 per cent, while viewership on Facebook rose by 170 per cent. Sky News now boasts over 1.8 million YouTube subscribers and more than 1.1 million Facebook followers.
Original article by Sophie Elsworth The Australian – Page: 17 : 19-Jul-21
Nine Entertainment aims to have equal representation of men and women among its newspapers’ opinion writers. Former federal Liberal leader John Hewson has been a columnist for "The Sydney Morning Herald" and "The Age" for nearly two decades, but he has been dropped by Nine due to this policy. However, Hewson believes that the real reason for the decision was the fact that he has become too critical of the federal government. Hewson has tweeted that neither the government or the mainstream media believe in a free press. Former Liberal minister Amanda Vanstone was also recently dropped from the roster of columnists at "The Age".
CORPORATES NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC
Original article by Alex Gluyas The Australian Financial Review – Page: 24 : 14-Jul-21
Matthew Hope of Credit Suisse forecasts that the strong rise in the price of lithium since February will be sustained. He says the lithium supply glut has ended, and the world faces a growing supply deficit as current and proposed lithium projects will be insufficient to meet demand. Rising demand for lithium has also boosted the share prices of Australian-listed producers; Pilbara Minerals’ shares gained 522.6 per cent in 2020-21, which was the second-best return among S&P/ASX 200 stocks.
Original article by Jared Lynch The Australian – Page: 15 : 9-Jul-21
Premier Investments’ chairman Solomon Lew has called for Myer Holdings’ three remaining independent directors to step down. He contends that $760m of shareholder value had been lost since his listed retail investment vehicle become Myer’s biggest shareholder in 2017. Lew adds that Premier has "nothing to gain" by engaging with Myer’s current board, after the department store group’s acting chair JoAnne Stephenson offered to provide his company with "appropriate" board representation. Lew has been advocating board renewal at Myer for several years.
A special analysis of movement data in Australia’s Capital City CBDs since the COVID-19 pandemic began shows movement in the CBDs of Sydney, Brisbane and Perth all plunging over the last week as all three were placed into lockdown to deal with the latest COVID-19 outbreaks in each city.
The average 7-day movement level in the Sydney CBD last week was at its lowest since the pandemic began more than a year ago at only 11% of pre-COVID-19 averages. This is a drop of 48% points since movement levels reached a 2021 high of 59% of pre-pandemic averages in the Easter holidays in early April.
There were also record low movement levels last week in both the Brisbane CBD, at only 23% of pre-pandemic averages, and Perth CBD at only 25%. The movement levels in Australia’s 3rd and 4th largest cities dropped rapidly after the respective Premiers announced snap lockdowns just over a week ago.
The average movement levels in the Melbourne CBD have increased by 10% points to 22% of pre-pandemic averages since the recent lockdown of the city with mandatory mask-wearing in offices and factories only ending this week on Friday July 9th. Despite this increase movement levels in the Melbourne CBD remain slightly below the averages in both the Brisbane and Perth CBDs.
Unsurprisingly movement levels are highest in the only two State Capital Cities to avoid recent lockdowns at 45% of pre-pandemic levels in the Adelaide CBD and at 40% in the Hobart CBD last week. South Australians can take pride that their city has been the ‘closest to normal’ of all Capital Cities for over five months now with average movement levels not dropping below 40% of pre-pandemic averages this year.
Australian Capital City CBDs average 7-day movement levels March 1, 2020 – July 4, 2021: % Movement is compared to the 7-day average in Jan-Feb 2020
Source: Roy Morgan collaboration with UberMedia who provide anonymous aggregated insights using mobile location data. Note: Movement data for the Capital City CBDs excludes the residents of the respective CBDs.
The latest vaccination figures from the Health Department show over 8.6 million vaccination doses have so far been administered to Australians covering around a third of the adult population. If herd immunity requires 80% of Australia’s 20 million adults to be vaccinated, we are still many months away from administering the 32 million vaccination doses required to reach this mark.
The events of the last few weeks with five Australian cities enduring lockdown of anywhere from a few days to three weeks comprehensively demonstrate that until a sizeable majority of Australians are vaccinated against COVID-19 there will remain the ongoing threat of snap border closures and restrictions as well as lockdowns being enforced to get on top of any viral outbreaks.
Roy Morgan has partnered with leading technology innovator UberMedia to aggregate data from tens of thousands of mobile devices to assess the movements of Australians as we deal with the restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The interactive dashboard available on the website tracks the movement data for those visiting the Capital City CBDs during 2020 and 2021, excluding the CBD residents of each city. Movement data from several key locations around Australia is also available to view by using the interactive dashboard.
Michele Levine, CEO of Roy Morgan, says the outbreaks of COVID-19 in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth forced city-wide lockdowns in all three cities last week and sent the movement of people in the respective Capital City CBDs plunging to record lows:
“We are now well over a year into the COVID-19 pandemic but despite a successful handling of the virus by Australian leaders so far this doesn’t mean the pandemic is over by any stretch.
“Over the last month five Australian Capital City CBDs have endured city-wide lockdowns ranging from four days (Brisbane & Perth) up to at least three weeks (the recently extended Sydney lockdown).
“The recent lockdowns have sent the movement of people in the respective Capital City CBDs plunging to record lows of only 11% of pre-pandemic levels in the Sydney CBD, 23% in the Brisbane CBD and 25% in the Perth CBD. These are all lower levels of movement than reached during any stage of the nation-wide lockdown in the first half of 2020. There is good news for the Melbourne CBD with average movement levels up 10% points from the city’s recent lockdown to 22% of pre-pandemic averages.
“Although the last few weeks might have seemed like nothing much has changed from a year ago the continuing roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccines is a quantitative difference. The roll-out has been criticised by many as lagging comparable countries overseas however there have now been over 8.5 million vaccine doses administered to nearly a third of all adult Australians.
“In the critical age groups over 70% of Australians aged 70+ have received a vaccine dose and over 50% of Australians aged 50+ have received a vaccine dose. However, the slow rate of the rollout is readily apparent when one considers only 10% of Australians have now been fully vaccinated by receiving their second vaccine dose.
“The low rate of vaccination is unfortunately set to contribute to continuing uncertainty regarding potential lockdowns, border closures and additional restrictions. The Victorian Government’s decision this week to cancel the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix set for mid-November shows Governments are expecting ‘more of the same’ over the next few months.
“Until a large majority of around 80% of Australian adults are vaccinated against COVID-19 we are at a continuing risk of drastic measures being taken that provide a huge hit to businesses attempting to recover from the pandemic without the level of support provided during 2020.”
