Business of Media
Streamers spent less on Aussie shows last year despite Labor’s threats
Streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video cut their spending on Australian TV shows and films in the 2022-23 financial year, despite Labor’s impending plans to force them to make more, reports Nine Publishing’s Sam Buckingham-Jones.
New figures released on Wednesday by the media regulator show Disney+, Netflix, Paramount+, Prime Video and Stan spent a combined $324.1 million on 1583 Aussie programs in the most recent financial year – down from $335.1 million on 718 shows in 2021-22.
Spend on “Australian-related” shows – those are partly Australian, like Disney’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Obi Wan Kenobi – rose to $452.9 million from $333.4 million.
Disney turns 100 this year and its Wish is for another massive hit
In many respects, Walt Disney Animation Studios is, to slightly misquote Gilbert and Sullivan, the very model of a modern major studio. A billion-dollar library of assets playing out on one of the world’s most successful streaming platforms while factories crank out shelves of action figures, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene posed and painted to mimic iconic moments from the studio’s films and TV series, reports Nine Publishing’s Michael Idato.
At its heart is the studio’s chief creative officer Jennifer Lee, who wrote and co-directed Disney’s mega-hit Frozen and its sequel Frozen II. As one of the few women leading a major Hollywood studio, she is a poster for modernity. And yet, at her side, is the imperceptible but ever-present ghost of the studio’s founder, Walt Disney. In real terms, it is one of Hollywood’s great silent partnerships.
Customers threaten legal action to secure compensation over Optus outage
Optus customers are threatening legal action over Wednesday’s mass outage, with thousands of businesses unable to trade and millions of Australians unable to access essential services, reports News Corp’s Eli Green.
More than 10 million customers and 400,000 businesses were impacted after the telecommunications giant’s mobile services went down at 4am AEDT and remained offline for the majority of the day.
The telco is yet to reveal the root cause behind the blackout, but the government has confirmed the outage was triggered by a fault in the provider’s core network.
RMIT’s fact check reinstated by Facebook two months after suspension over News Corp voice complaints
Facebook has agreed to reinstate RMIT FactLab to its factchecking program two months after it was suspended in the wake of repeated complaints by Sky News Australia about the key factchecker’s debunking of claims by the no campaign about the voice, reports The Guardian’s Amanda Meade.
No voice campaigners – including Sky host Peta Credlin, Liberal senator James Paterson and the right-wing thinktank the IPA – claimed RMIT FactLab was biased and demanded Facebook remove it from its program which aims to tackle online misinformation.
News Brands
News Awards 2023: The Australian wins big
The Australian’s editorial director and host of the daily The Front podcast Claire Harvey has taken out the Chairman’s Award at the annual News Corp Australia awards on Wednesday night, reports The Australian’s Jenna Clarke.
The Australian’s groundbreaking investigations, audio productions and peerless business reporting were also recognised at the glittering event in Sydney.
A six-part podcast series that delved into concussion in sport was recognised as the best audio/visual campaigns.
ABC journalists criticise broadcaster’s coverage of Gaza invasion
More than 200 ABC journalists participated in a mass meeting about the public broadcaster’s coverage of the war in Gaza, with a number of grievances raised leading to a possible shift in how the conflict is reported on, according to several people who attended, report Nine Publishing’s Osman Faruqi and Calum Jaspan.
The meeting on Wednesday afternoon, which ABC staff described as emotional and at times heated, took place in person and online and was initiated by Mark Maley, the ABC’s editorial policy manager.
The New York Times passes 10 million subscribers
The New York Times now has more than 10 million subscribers, the company said on Wednesday, edging closer to its goal of 15 million by the end of 2027, reports The New York Times’ Katie Robertson.
In its third-quarter report, The New York Times Company said it had added 210,000 net digital-only subscribers in the three months through September, giving it 9.41 million along with 670,000 print subscribers.
Television
Darren Hayes reveals tragic reason he did Masked Singer
The Masked Singer star Darren Hayes has opened up about the heartbreaking reason he finally agreed to do the show, reports News Corp’s Joshua Haigh.
Hayes revealed that he’d been asked countless times to take part in the competition, both in the UK and in Australia, but had always turned producers down. However, this year he felt differently and decided to sign up.
Hayes had a tough year, and decided that signing up to the show would be the perfect “distraction” from grieving the end of his marriage and the financial pressures that came with that.
How Hollywood strikes helped NCIS: Sydney take on US market
In a case of life imitating art, the Australian-American friendships forged on NCIS: Sydney are also set to play out in a mutually beneficial business deal between Paramount+ and CBS, reports News Corp’s Mikaela Wilkes.
The actors union SAG-AFTRA responded to Hollywood studios’ “last, best & final offer” on Tuesday, telling its members there are “essential items” the two sides have yet to reach agreement on, such as the use of AI.
The locally filmed NCIS: Sydney was originally planned for an Australian only release, however CBS commissioned the series to help fill holes in the network’s schedules as the Hollywood strikes surpassed 115 days.
See Also: Behind NCIS: Sydney: “The goal wasn’t to recreate the show in Australia”
Friends shoots to top of TV streaming charts following Matthew Perry’s death
Friends was the No. 1 most popular show on U.S. streaming services in the past week, according to new data — coming after news of series star Matthew Perry‘s death, reports Variety Australia’s Todd Spangler.
For the week of Oct. 30-Nov. 5, Friends (which is available on Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max) was the top-ranked TV show among American viewers, according to data compiled by streaming guide JustWatch. That was followed by limited series All the Light We Cannot See on Netflix and Gen V on Amazon’s Prime Video.
Sports Media
Ten’s broadcast of the Melbourne Cup draws 1.472 million viewers nationally
The interest in the Melbourne Cup grew this year and resulted in the national average television audience increasing by nine per cent to 1.472 million viewers, reports The Australian’s Sophie Elsworth.
Official ratings from OzTAM showed Network Ten’s live broadcast of the nation’s biggest horse race attracted a national average audience that was 121,000 viewers higher than last year when the Cup drew 1.351 million viewers.
Jockey Mark Zahra celebrated his second Melbourne Cup victory in a row, on Tuesday riding Without a Fight to victory in front of a crowd of nearly 85,000 fans in what turned out to be a hot spring day in the Victorian capital.
