MASS MEDIA – AUSTRALIA

SBS bets on customer choice to lure viewers as it offers block on gaming, booze and fast food ads

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Original article by Sophie Elsworth
The Australian – Page: 17 : 1-Nov-23

Public broadcaster SBS will allow allow users of its streaming video service to opt out of seeing advertisements for betting companies, alcoholic beverages and quick service restaurants. SBS On Demand viewers who chose to block such content will instead see ads for other products and services. SBS MD James Taylor says viewers have always had complete control over what they watch on SBS On Demand, and they will now have greater control over the ads they see. He expects other TV networks to consider a similar move. The federal government plans to impose greater restrictions on gambling advertisements.

CORPORATES
SPECIAL BROADCASTING SERVICE (SBS)

Target wary of opportunistic ARN

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Original article by Sam Buckingham-Jones
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 16 : 30-Oct-23

ARN Media and Anchorage Capital Partners are offering 0.753 ARN shares for each Southern Cross Austereo share, along with $0.296 in cash and $0.127 in franking credits. Southern Cross chairman John Murray has labelled the takeover bid "opportunistic", while describing it as quite complex and one that could take months to evaluate. Murray and Southern Cross CEO John Kelly have established a sub-committee of its board and management to assess the offer, while its shareholders are supportive of it considering the bid.

CORPORATES
SOUTHERN CROSS MEDIA GROUP LIMITED – ASX SXL, SOUTHERN CROSS AUSTEREO PTY LTD, ARN MEDIA LIMITED – ASX A1N, ANCHORAGE CAPITAL PARTNERS PTY LTD

ABC boss grilled over Gaza conflict coverage

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Original article by Calum Jaspan
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 25-Oct-23

The ABC’s MD David Anderson appeared before a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday, where he faced questions about the public broadcaster’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Amongst other things, he was asked about leaked text messages written by the ABC’s Middle East correspondent Tom Joyner, who described reports that Hamas had beheaded Israeli babies as "bullshit". Anderson says the comment was ‘unfortunate’ and should not have happened; he added that it is currently under investigation, and that Joyner will no longer file reports from Israel. Anderson also rejected suggestions that the ABC is anti-Semite.

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AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION

Heat on ABC voice, Garma spending

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Original article by Sophie Elsworth
The Australian – Page: 23 : 23-Oct-23

The ABC’s MD David Anderson is slated to appear before a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday. Liberal senator Hollie Hughes recently wrote to Anderson informing him of the issues he can expect to be asked about. They include how much the public broadcaster spent on its coverage of the Voice referendum over the last year, as well as its coverage of the Garma Festival in the Northern Territory. Anderson will also be asked to provide more details of ABC employees whose annual salaries exceed $220,000. The ABC’s legal costs are also likely to come under scrutiny.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

Content quotas won’t guarantee another Bluey, says Ten boss

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Original article by Calum Jaspan
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 22-Sep-23

The Ten Network recently rebranded its 10Shake secondary channel as Nickelodeon, a children’s-focused channel owned by US parent company Paramount that was previously broadcast on Foxtel. Paramount Australia’s chief content officer and co-vice president Beverley McGarvey says bringing Nickelodeon to free-to-air TV will give Australian children access to a larger range of content aimed at young audiences. McGarvey adds that imposing children’s content quotas would not result in another global hit like Bluey, arguing that the animated show’s success is due to the fact that it is brilliant rather than a content quota system.

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TEN NETWORK HOLDINGS LIMITED, NICKELODEON, PARAMOUNT GLOBAL

Buttrose to quit ABC as contenders circle

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Original article by Sophie Elsworth, Nick Tabakoff
The Australian – Page: 3 : 23-Aug-23

Peter Tonagh is widely regarded as the leading internal contender to succeed Ita Buttrose as the ABC’s chair. Buttrose has advised that she will not seek a second five-year term as the public broadcaster’s chair when her current term expires in March 2024. Communications Minister Michelle Rowland says Buttrose was "the right chair for the right time". Tonagh is currently the ABC’s deputy chair, while other potential candidates are said to include former Foxtel CEO Kim Williams and lawyer Danny Gilbert. Meanwhile, former Q+A host Stan Grant has confirmed that he has left the ABC and intends to make a permanent departure from "daily journalism" after four decades in the media industry.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS, FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD

Readership of magazines is up 4.1% from a year ago with increases in readership for all magazine categories

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 23-Aug-23

The Roy Morgan Australian Readership report for the 12 months to June 2023 shows that 11.5 million Australians aged 14+ (53.1%) now read print magazines, up 4.1 per cent on a year ago. This market broadens to 15 million Australians aged 14+ (69.5%) who read magazines in print or online either via the web or an app, a small drop of 1.8 per cent from a year ago. Print readership increased for all 17 magazine categories compared to a year ago, as readership rebounded following the end of the pandemic restrictions. Eight of the top 10 magazines increased their print readership over the past year, as did 21 out of the top 25 titles. Better Homes & Gardens is still Australia’s most widely read paid magazine with print readership of 1,821,000, up 15.7 per cent on a year ago, ahead of the Australian Women’s Weekly on 1,328,000 (up 10.5 per cent). These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey of 66,234 Australians aged 14+ in the 12 months to June 2023.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

$100m play looms for World Cup TV rights

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Original article by John Stensholt, Jessica Halloran
The Australian – Page: 5 : 16-Aug-23

Optus is believed to have paid up to $30m for the broadcasting rights to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. It has also on-sold the free-to-air rights to selected matches to Seven West Media for about $4m. FIFA has set a deadline of 19 September to submit bids for the local broadcasting rights to the next men’s and women’s World Cup tournaments; it is believed to be seeking up to $100m for the rights, following the ratings success of the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Optus, SBS and the three commercial free-to-air networks are expected to submit bids.

CORPORATES
FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION, SINGTEL OPTUS PTY LTD, SEVEN WEST MEDIA LIMITED – ASX SWM, SEVEN NETWORK LIMITED, SPECIAL BROADCASTING SERVICE (SBS)

What ABC viewers complained about

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Original article by Calum Jaspan
The Age – Page: Online : 16-Aug-23

The ABC’s ombudsman Fiona Cameron has revealed that the public broadcaster received a total of 11,440 complaints during the first half of 2023. Some 13 per cent related to the ABC’s editorial standards; this compares with 15 per cent across the previous three calendar years, when the ABC received an average of 23,767 complaints in total each year. Meanwhile, the proportion of complaints that were upheld rose to eight per cent in the first half of 2023, compared with an average of five per cent across the previous three years.

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abc (aus tv) see AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION

Seven kicks a goal with Matildas’ Cup victory

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Original article by Sophie Elsworth
The Australian – Page: 3 : 9-Aug-23

The FIFA Women’s Wold Cup continues to be a ratings boon for the Seven Network. Data from OzTAM shows that Seven’s broadcast of the Matildas’ win against Denmark on Monday night attracted 3.248 million viewers nationwide, plus an additional 385,000 via its 7plus streaming platform. The Matildas’ 2-0 win to advance to the quarter-finals has become the most-watched program in Australia so far in 2023; the recent must-win match against Canada boasted an average audience of 2.42 million viewers. Seven has the free-to-air rights to 15 World Cup matches, with Optus Sport holding the rights to all 64 matches in the tournament.

CORPORATES
SEVEN NETWORK LIMITED, SEVEN WEST MEDIA LIMITED – ASX SWM, 7PLUS, FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION, MATILDAS, OPTUS SPORT