Papers review: Slow-going for Nine; the bad ship Blue Freeway; Walton returns with a mean new haircut
In a quiet news week, the good journalist turns to their diary, and that’s what today’s media and marketing sections have done, with the AFR and The Oz looking forward to the Winter Olympics, future TV shows and today’s digital TV conference.
Australian Financial Review
The Fin reports that Nine is receiving “a cool response” to its ad packages for next February’s Vancouver Winter Olympics.
The paper also reports that mobile phone radio service Stripe– part owned by M&C Saatchi exec David Whittle – is preparing to launch a marketing push. The 31-channel service has been marketing itself to Optus custoemrs since December, and a deal has now been done with Telstra too.
Media group Aegis has changed its forecast for Australia from growth of 3.6% in 2009 to a decline of 1.9%, says the paper.
Michael Hannan, the relatively low profile poss of Independent Print Media Group, discusses his plans to take Blue Freeway private. In yet another swipe at the previous management, he tells the paper:
“I liken Blue Freeway to a ship full of cargo. We like the cargo and we like the crew, but since we’ve been aboard we find this very expensive ship has been jerry-built and is inefficient.”
And despite parent company Daily Mail and General trust making 1000 redundancies in the UK, there are no similar plans for Australian radio stations Nova and Vega, the company tells the AFR.
The Australian
SBS will announce its plans for its second digital station later today, reports The Oz. SBS2 will launch on June 1.
The paper also reports on last week’s launch of Ten’s new digital sports channel One. It lists six reasons that the launch signals a “tectonic shift” that has “forever changed the TV landscape”. The sith reason is “For the first time, a free-to-air TV channel with green livery has emerged”. Dramatic days indeed.
The Foxtel sitcom (or “scripted comedy” as they’d prefer to know it) from Three Drunk Monkeys duo Scott Nowell and Justin Drape and Prodigy director Tim Bullock is beginning to take shape, the paper reports. However, it looks like 30 Seconds is taking itself quite seriously. According to the paper:
“The show is a character study based on the moral dilemmas people face, heightened by the excesses of the advertising industry.” So don’t expect too many fart jokes, then.
Chris Walton– former boss of MindShare who chose to leave the company but stay in Australia after being invited to relocate to a remote outpost – re-emerges, with a fearsome new hard-man-of-media buzzcut. He’ll be working with analytics firm Quantium on a comms planning offering. Which will make media agencies who work for Quantium’s current clients – including Optus, NAB, Microsoft, Jetstar, Commonwealth Bank and MBF – nervous.
Fairfax may axe its Sunday TV supplement or Sunday Life magazine, reports the paper.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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