News

Seven accuses Nine of theft over Today Tonight lift

The Seven Network is threatening legal action after Nine’s A Current Affair rebroadcast most of a segment from Today Tonight minutes after it had aired.

Last night’s incident – involving an interview with one of two boys at the centre of a much debated video of a schoolyard fight – marks the most extreme example yet of the rival shows lifting content from each other.

Today_Tonight_ACA_copycat

Image source: TV Tonight

A Current Affair carried around five minutes of Today Tonight’s eight minute report.

This afternoon, Seven issued a statement from Today Tonight’s executive producer Craig McPherson saying:

“You would have to be delusional to suggest what ACA did on Monday night is acceptable. There are times when both programs, the 6pm news even newspapers lift and use images from other outlets on certain stories. Day to day media is very robust and immediate.

“To actually lift, lock stock and barrel a report from your rival outlet is unprecedented. Let’s put this into context. This is not lifting images, this is journalistic theft. ACA lifted James Thomas’ report. From start to finish it was TT’s James Thomas’ script, voice over, interview, cut aways..the whole report dropped into their rundown 10 minutes after they recorded it off air and ran it as their own.

“It would be like the Daily Telegraph re running a report, verbatim from its rival on the same day.

“We all work under pressure. As do most of the workforce. But to have a brain explosion like that cannot be dismissed with arrogant, smug rhetoric.

”Channel 7 will be pursuing this to the full letter of the law. ACA created TV history on Monday night for all the wrong reasons.”

A Current Affair has in recent weeks taken potshots at Today Tonight for lifting shot sequences of video – even when heavily watermarked. In February, the network even created a fake apology to viewers.

The point of copyright law at issue is likely to be that of “fair dealing”, which allows news outlets to carry elements of somebody else’s content for the pruposes of telling a wider story. In general though, this has to be a small proportion of a much larger piece.

On Sunday night, Today Tonight carried elements from A Current Affair’s coverage of the same story.

Nobody from Nine was immediately available for comment. The Telegraph reported a spokesman from Nine as saying: “It’s more than a bit rich for TT to start whining about lack of attribution when they have long been repeat and serial offenders on the use of others’ – mostly ACA , of course – material.”

In the battle for ratings, Seven won the fight last night. Today Tonight pulled in 1.447m viewers to Nine’s 1.205m.

4.40pm update: A spokesman for Nine told Mumbrella:

“An unctuous Churchillian lecture on journalistic ethics from the EP of Today Tonight. Now we’ve seen it all . This from the same honest broker who at 6.30pm last – 25 minutes before ACA’s alleged offence – actually led his own program with great slabs of the ACA bully interview – all totally unattributed .As he and his program have routinely done literally scores of times previously.

“The hypocrisy is towering and transparent . Today Tonight confecting outrage about non-attribution of any story is very much like Jack the Ripper complaining about an increase in knife-related crime.

“They can have their day in court if they desperately want it . But only if they want to be publicly buried under a truckload of cases of their own un-attributed use of others’ material over the past two decades”

ADVERTISEMENT

Get the latest media and marketing industry news (and views) direct to your inbox.

Sign up to the free Mumbrella newsletter now.

 

SUBSCRIBE

Sign up to our free daily update to get the latest in media and marketing.