MEDIABLAB DAILY DIGEST DEC 18: CMH FAIRFAX CASBAA CCTV-9 FT GROUP
December 18th 2007 02:07
A daily compendium of stries filed by MediaBlab's Peter Olszewski over the last 24 hours for Dow Jones' Factiva
DESTRA EXPECTED TO COUNTER BID FOR BEYOND INTERNATIONAL TODAY
Australia’s digital media company Destra Corporation is expected today to counter bid for television producer and distributor Beyond International ahead of Mariner Financial’s takeover offer.
The Australian Financial Review says today that the move will end weeks of speculation over Destra’s intention.
Mariner last week lashed out at Destra and yesterday it questioned Destra’s ability to fund a higher cash offer.
CONTINUED SPECULATION THAT AUSTRALIA’S CONSOLIDATED MEDIA HOLDINGS WILL BE BOUGHT… OR WILL BUY
Speculation still abounds that Australia’s newest company, Consolidated Media Holdings, formerly James Packer’s PBL, will the subject of a takeover.
The Australian Financial Review today reports that, “Telstra and News Corporation are consistently being tipped as logical buyers of the stand-alone media group, with broker Merrill Lynch running through its reasoning for corporate action as it initiated coverage yesterday.”
Meanwhile Merrill Lynch also suggests that Considered Media Holdings itself could be on the hunt for acquisitions with $90 million net cash sitting in its coffers.
Merrill Lynch speculated Consolidated Media’s acquisitions are “expected to be small and most likely in the online sector.”
JAPANESE TV SOAP OPERA SET IN AUSTRALIA TO PROMOTE TOURISM MAY STILL GO AHEAD
An ambitious plan by Australia’s government tourist body Tourism Australia to host a Japanese television soap opera as a means of reviving tourist numbers from Japan, seems to be going ahead despite Japanese press reports that the Labor party, now in government, considered the proposal a waste of time.
But on September 18, the Japan Times reported that the opposition Labor Party “has dismissed the idea as a stunt and a waste of taxpayers' money, but the government is hopeful the project will turn around the lagging Japanese market, which has fallen 13 percent in the first half of this year.”
A spokesman for Australia’s Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism today told MediaBlab that, “A couple of months ago, Tourism Australia sought expressions of interest from potential providers for this project. It will be up to Tourism Australia to decide whether the best proposal which they get offers sufficient value for money. I am not sure how far along they are with this process at the moment.”
Tourism Australia has not responded to MediaBlab’s query.
REGIONAL TV TO CAPITALISE ON AUSTRALIA’S ANNUAL HOLIDAY MIGRATION OF VIEWERS FROM METRO MARKETS
Australia’s regional TV networks WIN and NBN hope to profit from the summer migration of metropolitan viewers to regional markets over the next two months of the holiday season.
The Australian reports, “The multi-media effort to lure national advertisers, who traditionally focus on the five capital cities, will tap into specially created websites focusing on more than 30 regional centres with strong tourism markets.
WIN NBN general manager of business development Scott Corcoran said the project was a trial this year, but while the broadcaster has been unable to gather panel data on the influx of viewers to regional markets, analysis of data from Tourism Australia and the census suggest audiences rise over the summer months by between 10 and 20 percent.
Corcoran said several advertisers had already agreed to shift part of the metro budgets to the regional network.
AUSTRALIA’S NETWORK TEN BOOSTS ITS ENVIRONMENTAL AND CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS COVERAGE
Network Ten has created a national environment reporting unit with boosted climate change coverage because of the growing importance Australians are placing on the issue.
Emily Rice, 28, a former Adelaide Advertiser journalist and most recently a general reporter in Ten's Adelaide bureau, will be the face of Ten's environment coverage, The Australian reports..
Ten news director Jim Carroll said the network would treat the environment as a dedicated round, on a par with state politics and police.
"This is a network role, like our Los Angeles or UK correspondent," he said.
"From our viewers' viewpoint, it's a critical issue.
Rice, who earlier this month was named rural journalist of the year at the South Australian Rural Media Awards, said the most pressing issues nationally were climate change and water.
AUSTRALIAN PAY-TV OPERATORS INCREASE SUBSCRIPTION RATES IN THE FACE OF HD TV START-UPS
Pay-TV operators in Australia have upped the cost of their main subscriber packages in preparation for the launch of HD TV and other television advances, according to the Australian Financial Review.
Foxtel, for example has increased fees for its entry level 29-channel package, and its high end platinum 150-channel package.
Foxtel said its price increases will help fund its high-definition launches next year.
Singtel’s Optus has also increased its pricing as part of “industry-wide price increases.”
BOARD ROOM CHANGES AT AUSTRALIAN MEDIA COMPANIES
Fairfax Media said that its directors John B Fairfax, and Nicholas Fairfax have appointed Patrick Joyce, as their alternate on its board, effective December 11.
Joyce is the investment director at Marinya Media Pty Ltd.
Mobi Ltd has changed its board structure Garry Sholl has resigned as a director, effective immediately and Michael Abela, the company ceo has been appointed to the board.
Network Ten said that after three and a half years with the company,
Shaun James, its network marketing officer, would depart at the end of
2007.
James’ departure is regarded as “sudden” and has been questioned by some Australian media outlets.
James joined Ten as deputy general manager, network sales, in August 2004 and a year later became general manager, network sales.
He took on the newly-created role of chief network marketing officer only four months ago, in August of 2007.
Before joining Ten, he spent 13 years with Warner Music, the last five as chairman and chief executive officer of Warner Music Australasia.
TENNIS AUSTRALIA TO FOLLOW CRICKET AUSTRALIA BY LAUNCHING ITS OWN BROADBAND TV CHANNEL
Tennis Australia has launched its own on-demand broadband television channel for next year's Australian Open.
The Australian reports that Tennis Australia has followed Cricket Australia in attempting to develop its own revenue stream from internet content, but while cricket retains its internet rights, Tennis Australia recently signed, another five-year deal that gives its local free-to-air broadcast and online rights to the Seven Network.
Tennis Australia will offer domestic internet users free match and session highlights and off-court video coverage on the australianopen.com website.
In Australia, Seven will also screen highlights packages online.
But, The Australian reports, in markets where there is no broadcast agreement, such as China, South America and the Middle East, viewers will be able to watch live coverage of the action on up to six courts for a subscription fee of expected about A$35.
Cricket Australia is relaunching its own broadband channel with more behind-the-scenes footage. It generated 2 million on-demand and live streams last year and is understood to have sold several thousand subscriptions.
AUSTRALIA’S MUCH CRITICISED MEDIA WATCH TV PROGRAM GETS NEW EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Jo Puccini has been appointed as the executive producer of the watch-dog ABC TV program, Media Watch, according to The Australian.
Puccini will join her former Four Corners colleague and new host Jonathan Holmes in April when she returns from maternity leave.
Puccini had worked at Media Watch as a researcher before moving to the Seven Network and working as a researcher-producer on The Times, Today Tonight and Witness.
After returning to the ABC in 2001, Puccini jointly won three Walkley Awards for her work on Four Corners.
Lateline reporter-producer Brett Evans will hold Puccini's position until she returns in April.
BITTER BASTARD RIVALRY IN THE UK AS O’REILLY AND O’BRIEN SLUG IT OUT OVER SALE OF THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
The Guardian reports that Sir Anthony O'Reilly will "fiercely resist" any proposal from his rival, media and telecoms tycoon Denis O'Brien, to sell the loss-making UK Independent and Independent on Sunday.
The Guardian said, “Reacting to O'Brien's increasing stake in O'Reilly's Independent News & Media group last week, a spokesman for O'Reilly said the former Irish rugby international would not contemplate putting the two London titles up for sale.
The spokesman's dismissal of O'Brien's criticism of the Independent News & Media continued ownership of the Independent and the Independent on Sunday reflects the growing bitterness between the Irish telecoms and media billionaire and O'Reilly.
But O’Reilly himself continued the attack in an interview he gave the Sunday Business Post.
The Sunday Business Post reported, “Independent News and Media chief executive Gavin O’Reilly has launched a stinging attack on the track record and intentions of telecoms billionaire Denis O’Brien, who has raised his stake in the media group to 14.5 percent.”
In the interview with The Sunday Business Post, O’Reilly said that O’Brien was critical of Independent News & Media because ‘‘he is hostile to the editorial coverage of him in titles owned by Independent.”
He said that O’Brien, who has criticised the corporate governance and size of the board at Independent News & Media, had very little experience of running a publicly quoted company other than briefly at Esat Telecom, where only four of the 24 directors were independent members. O’Reilly accused O’Brien of failing to appreciate the subtleties required to run a media business.
He emphasised that Independent News & Media radio interests in Australia made more profit than O’Brien’s radio business, Communicorp, takes in an annual revenue.
‘‘He [O’Brien] has been good at building up capital in businesses, but running and growing a business on through in terms of making a net profit is an optional extra,” O’Reilly said.
ASIA’S CABLE & SATELLITE BROADCASTING ASSOCIATION’S 2007 CONFERENCE CONTENT NOW ONLINE
Speeches and proceedings of the four-day CASBAA Convention 2007, organised by the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia which ran from October 30 to November 2, are now available online at: Really Long Link
Speakers at this year’s CASBAA Convention included leading Asia-Pacific and global media identities such as:
Joong Soo Nam, president and ceo of KT Corporation
Andy Kaplan, president of International Networks of Sony Pictures Television
Bob Zitter, cto of HBO
Peter Mukerjea, ceo of INX Asia
Tony DaSilva, coo of Sun Direct
Jason Krikorian, co-founder of Sling Media
Laureen Ong, coo, STAR Group
Michael Kelley, advisory partner, US Entertainment Media & Communications Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Harri Männistö, director, Watch New Experiences, Global, Nokia
Dan Glickman, ceo of the Motion Picture Association of America
The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia represents 128 Asia-based corporations, which in turn serve more than three billion people. Members include AETN International (History Channel), Asia Broadcast Networks, Asia Broadcast Satellite, AsiaSat, Astro, Australia Network, Bloomberg Television, Chunghwa Telecom, Discovery Networks Asia, Genesis Networks, Granada International/ITV Worldwide, HBO Asia, Intelsat, Macquarie Group, MediaFLO Technologies, Motorola, MTV Networks Asia Pacific, Nokia, now TV, PricewaterhouseCoopers, SES New Skies, Sony Pictures Television International, STAR Group, Sun Microsystems, TrueVisions, Turner International Asia Pacific, Walt Disney Television International, Chello Zone, Al Jazeera, Amarchand Mangaldas, Asian Food Channel, BBC Global Channels Asia-Pacific, Celestial Movies, Deutsche Welle, ESPN STAR Sports, Hallmark Channel, GMA Network Inc., GroupM, HiT Entertainment, Hong Kong Cable TV, Irdeto, KDB Skylife, Lovells, Measat, MGM Networks, Microsoft Corporation, Minter Ellison, National Geographic, Network18, Paul Weiss, Playboy TV, ProtoStar, Providence Equity, PT Direct Vision, SAT-GE, Tandberg Television, Tata Sky, TBN, Ten Sports, TFN Media, TimeWarner, TV5MONDE, Viaccess and Zee TV.
AMERICAN ADVERTISERS LOBBY OVER PROPOSED FCC TV PRODUCT PLACEMENT RULES
TV Week reports that advertising groups in the US are making a last-minute bid to head off the Federal Communications Commission’s launch of a formal rule-making on TV product placement.
The FCC vote is due tomorrow, and executives of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the American Advertising Federation and the Association of National Advertisers are arguing in a letter to the commissioners that the “rule-making” should be downgraded to an “inquiry” because there is little evidence that product placement is either harmful or misleading.
An “inquiry,” the groups said, would allow the FCC to examine the issue impartially.
FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin announced plans for the inquiry in the wake of petitions from Commercial Alert, a consumer group, and pleas from U.S. Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Ed Markey, D-Mass. The congressmen said product placement is increasingly “blurring” the lines between content and advertising, leaving viewers without any certainty on whether they are seeing commercial messages.
AMERICAN ‘BIKINI-BABE’ TV NEWS ANCHOR PUNCHES OUT POLICE OFFICER
An American television news anchor who made headlines for sending photos of herself in a bikini to a married man at the NFL Network was arrested on Sunday after she punched a police officer in the face.
Emmy Award winner Alycia Lane, who co-anchors evening newscasts at KYW-TV, a CBS affiliate in Philadelphia, hit the female officer in Manhattan about 2am on Sunday, police said.
No information was give about what led to the incident.
Lane made national headlines in the US in May after she e-mailed holiday snaps of herself and friends wearing bikinis to NFL Network anchor Rich Eisen. The shots were intercepted by Eisen's wife.
Lane said the pictures were meant to be good fun between old friends, not an attempt to break up Eisen's marriage.
This news from the US follows earlier Australian reports of a national newspaper journalist punching a political candidate at an election-day polling booth after he responded negative to her flirtatious emails.
GOOGLE TO GIVE WIKIPEDIA A RUN FOR ITS MONEY
Google will take on the world’s most popular encyclopaedia Wikipedia with the launch of Knol, an online, user-generated and user-edited learning site.
VNU Net reports that users will have access to 'easy editing tools' with Google hosting the service and ensuring Knol content is ranked appropriately in the online search engine’s search results.
In contrast to Wikipedia, Knol will highlight the authors of each entry by publishing their profiles.
Google’s primary aim is for Knol to cover all topics, from scientific concepts, and medical information to how-to-fix-it instructions, but it acknowledges that Google will not be able to guarantee that all entries are of the highest quality, with completely open levels of participation.
KOREAN GOVERNMENT STILL CAN’T DISLODGE STAY-PUT REPORTERS FROM THEIR PRESS ROOM
The on-going saga of the Korean government trying to kick all reporters out of their official press room continues (See MediaBlab archive.)
Chosun.com reported that on Sunday, Korea’s shut off electricity and heat in a further bid to budge the recalcitrant stay-put journalists.
The ministry has been demanding reporters move to an integrated so-called media centre behind the old annex, a 10-minute walk away, where the offices of the minister and vice minister of defense as well as the Joint Chiefs of Staff are located.
Two officials from the public relations team at the ministry visited the press room and demanded reporters vacate it by noon on Sunday. When reporters refused, the ministry immediately shut off the electricity. The 18 journalists based in the press room held a candlelight vigil protesting the measure and some resisted demands by ministry officials to leave. There was a shouting match after a ministry official demanded the reporters extinguish their candles due to fire safety concerns and reporters told the officials to get out.
The ministry also cancelled reporters’ accreditation cards, and beefed up military police guarding the main entrance to keep reporters who had left from coming back in. A ministry official said no assistance could be given to the reporters until they move to the new briefing room
RUSSIA’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER MOSKOVSKIYE NOVOSTI SET TO SHUTDOWN IN NEW YEAR
Russia’s weekly newspaper Moskovskiye Novosti now seems certain to cease publishing on January 1.
Moscow Times commented, “It may have outlived perestroika and survived the Yukos affair, but now financial problems seem to have sunk Moskovskiye Novosti.”
Management at the publication's parent company, Obyedinyonniye Media, held a meeting on Friday that seemingly doomed the paper, although there is some hope that it may be relaunched at some future date in a new format, according to a statement by the publisher.
Obyedinyonniye Media, owned by Israeli-Russian businessman Arkady Gaidamak, runs a host of other media outlets, including the radio station Business FM, and also prints Moskovskiye Novosti's sister English-language edition, The Moscow News, in partnership with RIA-Novosti, the state news agency.
The Moscow Times said it was not immediately clear how Friday's announcement would affect The Moscow News.
SAFFRON MEDIA IN INDIA TO LAUNCH SUBSCRIBER ONLY HOSPITALITY MAGAZINE
Saffron Media, a division of India’s Adfactors Group, is launching HospitalityBiz India, a news magazine and portal, to provide quality information to hoteliers and industry consultants.
The initial print run for the fortnightly subscription-only magazine is expected to be 10,000 copies to be distributed in about 15 major Indian cities.
Agencyfaqs said, “The magazine and the portal will feature trade related trends, cost analysis and detailed content on hotel operations, including food and beverages, housekeeping, technology, security and front office.
”The portal will play a more interactive role and aim to bridge the void of information that a busy hotelier faces due to travel and busy schedules.”
Target audience for the magazine includes business leaders, executives, managers and entrepreneurs in the industry and its related segments, such as hotels, restaurants, hotel management institutes, real estate developers, catering companies, hospitals, air catering companies, food product suppliers, interior and architecture designers, centre and state level ministries, and ancillary service providers.
HospitalityBiz India will be marketed through trade shows, events and online promotions. Saffron Media’s portfolio includes publications in the life sciences group such as pharmaceuticals and healthcare, capital expenditure, research, food and beverages and travel and hospitality across Southeast Asia, West Asia and Europe
SHANGHAI TO LAUNCH INTERNATIONAL TV CHANNEL FOR FOREIGN MARKET ON JANUARY 1
Shanghai will launch an international channel aimed at the foreigners market on January 1, 2008, as part of an effort to become an international and cultural metropolis, and will compete with the government channel CCTV-9.
Xinhua news agency reports that the International Channel Shanghai is expected to serve as a window to showcase the economic and cultural development of Shanghai and also provide its audience with entertainment and information, said Li Ruigang, president of Shanghai Media Group
The International Channel Shanghai programs, covering news, information, fashion, entertainment, foreign TV shows and movies, will be aired in English and Japanese, with Chinese captions, for 19 hours a day.
About 4.4 million internet subscribers in the city can also watch the program on their computers through Internet Protocol Television.
The new channel will also focus on the 2010 World Expo by launching a weekly program, Expo Connection, in an effort to keep locals and foreigners informed of the preparatory progress.
Shanghai TV was the first broadcaster in China to provide English programs. News At Ten and Shanghai Noon, which started broadcasting in 1986, were the first English language news program in the country.
NEW YORK TIMES WEBSITE GETS NUMBER ONE GOOGLE NEWS RANKING ACCORDING TO NEWSKNIFE ANALYSIS
NYTimes.com has been ranked the leading online news site based on the number of top ranking story listings it registered on Google News US throughout 2007, according to an analysis by Newsknife.
Newsknife said that of the 3,809 sites found in its sample of nearly 2,000 major news items, NY Times.com was the Google News US top source on 168 occasions.
Last year's top US source, ABC News, dropped to fifth on the 2007 list, and has fallen from 201 top stories in 2006, to just 59 this year.
Journalism.co said the New York Times claimed a significant boost in traffic after it disposed of the Times Select paywall that prevented non-subscribers from accessing premium content on the site. It also introduced a number of new features.
ABC News moved down the rankings this year, while Houston Chronicle and Los Angeles Times were debutants on the list.
Newsknife speculated that change to the top dozen sources was 'subtle and perhaps temporary'.
The UK’s Guardian Unlimited slipped out of the Top 12 after holding seventh place in 2006. Another UK source, Times Online, remained in the list, although it dropped from fifth in 2006, to eighth in the latest list.
Newsknife said, “An interesting addition to the list is the Associated Press. Items from AP have only been appearing at Google News since the start of September.
Newsknife has found AP as the top news item source 11 times over the three months to date.
Top News Sites of 2007
1 New York Times (168 top stories)
2 Voice of America (91)
3 Reuters (87)
4 Washington Post (79)
5 ABC News (59)
6 Houston Chronicle (58)
7 Forbes (52)
8 Times Online, UK (51)
9 Bloomberg (49)
10 CNN (47)
11= Los Angeles Times (44)
11= The Associated Press (44)
Newsknife has been rating news sites for six years. Compare the lists of top sites for '04 through '07:
Top News Sites of 2006
1 201 ABC News
2 166 New York Times
3 164 Reuters
4 Washington Post
5 Times Online, UK
6 Forbes
7 Guardian Unlimited, UK
8 Voice of America
9 Christian Science Monitor
10 International Herald Tribune, France
11 Bloomberg
12 CNN
Top News Sites of 2005
1 102 ABC News
2 93 The New York Times
3 86 Reuters
4 The Washington Post
5 Guardian Unlimited, UK
6 Voice of America
7 SFGate.com, CA
8 Bloomberg
9 Times Online, UK
10 International Herald Tribune, France
11 CNN
12 The Christian Science Monitor
Top News Sites of 2004
1 89 The New York Times
2 71 Reuters
3 67 The Washington Post
4 ABC News
5 Xinhua, China
6 The Christian Science Monitor
7 Voice of America
8 CNN
9 Bloomberg
10 San Francisco Chronicle, CA
11 Guardian Unlimited, UK
12 International Herald Tribune, France
UK MAGAZINE PUBLISHER IPC PARTNERS WITH PREMIUM PUBLISHERS ONLINE TO WOO EUROPEAN DIGITAL ADVERTISERS
Major UK magazine publisher IPC will become a partner in the Premium Publishers Online sales network to develop digital opportunities for European advertisers.
Journalism.co said that IPC will join Associated Northcliffe Digital, El Mundo in Spain, 01net in France and Telegraaf Media Groep in the Netherlands in the network.
IPC Media director of digital advertising Nicholas Bradley negotiated the partnership with Gary Popl, director of international sales, Premium Publishers Online, and IPC titles, including NME.com, nuts.co.uk and nowmagazine.co.uk, will be promoted to European advertising clients.
Nicholas Bradley said, "As our online portfolio expands and thrives, it makes perfect sense to join the Premium Publishers Online network, for the first time providing pan-European clients with one-stop access to our pre-eminent web brands."
INDIA’S THE WEEK MAGAZINE EXPANDS COVERAGE BEYOND NEWS AND ANALYSIS
India’s Malayala Manorama Group’s weekly news magazine, The Week completes its silver jubilee on December 25 this year by changing its baseline from ‘Your Weekly Newsmaker, to ‘Journalism with a Human Touch.’
This signals that The Week is about to expand its coverage beyond news and analysis.
“Though our core coverage areas will remain politics, business and investigation, our focus will be on covering all this with a human touch,” managing editor Philip Matthew, told Exchange4media.
According to ABC Jan-June 2007 figures, The Week is one of India’s largest circulated weekly newsmagazine with a net paid circulation of 201,192, and was among the first to start a website in the ’90s.
The Week was also the first magazine to offer booklets to readers covering a range of subjects.
Philip Mathew said, “We have constantly made innovations over the past 25 years, and we will continue to do stories like our ‘Man of the Year’. This cover feature is one of our best known properties. On our 20th anniversary, we honoured the men and women that we had thus featured at a function in Mumbai, and released a book titled Prophets of New India.”
POLISH NEWSPAPER PUBLISHES A SPECIAL ISSUE EDITED AND WRITTEN BY BLOGGERS
Newspaper Innovation reports that Metro Poland newspaper, published by Agora SA, published a special bloggers issue last week.
MetroBLOX was out together in cooperation with the community service Blox.pl and was distributed with the regular national edition of Metro.
Eight bloggers were selected as editors, responsible for supervising thematic sections ranging from new technologies and careers through to culture, lifestyle or sports.
Each of them was free to pick up a team of bloggers helping them prepare articles to be published in MetroBlox. The bloggers worked under the supervision of the newspaper’s editorial staff.
During the 1970s, a popular Polish newspaper featured nothing but articles produced by readers.
FT GROUP HEAD BUSY REPOSITIONING TO FULLY CAPITALISE ON THE DIGITAL AGE
FT Group chief executive Rona Fairhead is a busy woman, according to the UK Telegraph. She is finalising a deal to sell the French business daily Les Echos, the disposal of a 50 percent stake in FT Deutschland is expected to be next and a question-mark also hangs over Vedomosti, the Russian business paper jointly funded by FT parent company Pearson, Finnish group Sanoma and Dow Jones.
"We like the business news market," says Fairhead. "But we want to have brands that are digital and can be built globally. Our concern was that if we continued to own businesses like Les Echos, we wouldn't invest and ultimately that wouldn't be the right thing for Les Echos or the FT Group."
Diversifying into new digital publishing assets is one way Fairhead is trying to secure the FT Group's future. But the threats she faces are substantial. On one side looms a re-energised Wall Street Journal and its website under Murdoch's ownership.
On the other is the downturn in financial markets which directly threatens advertising revenues at her main Financial Times newspaper title.
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