Media executive’s exit comes as broadcaster faces a number of controversies
James Warburton, the chief executive and managing director of Seven West Media, left the company on Thursday, amid a tumultuous period for the broadcaster.
The prominent media executive was due to step down before the end of the financial year, according to executive changes first announced late last year.
Continue reading...Justice Michael Lee has reopened high-profile case to allow fresh evidence from former Seven producer Taylor Auerbach
Justice Michael Lee will allow Channel Ten to present additional evidence in its defence of the defamation case brought by Bruce Lehrmann, delaying the judgment until next week.
The case will be reopened and the evidence of a new witness, former Seven producer Taylor Auerbach, will now be tested on Thursday, the day the judgment was to have been handed down.
Continue reading...The journalism foundation board did not say it would withdraw Seven’s shortlisting for the 2023 scoop of the year award for Liam Bartlett’s interview with Lehrmann
The Walkley board will review its rules on “chequebook journalism” after it emerged that the Seven Network paid Bruce Lehrmann’s rent for a year to secure an interview that was later nominated for the 2023 scoop of the year award.
But a statement released on Sunday by the foundation, which oversees Australia’s most prestigious journalism awards, did not reverse or retrospectively invalidate the nomination. As of Sunday evening, Seven’s interview was still listed on the Walkley website as a shortlisted finalist.
Continue reading...Host Sam Pang cracks joke at celebrities including Sam Neill, Karl Stefanovic and Jonathan LaPaglia – and takes a shot at broadcaster Channel Seven
Little-known ABC show Crazy Fun Park beat out the enormously popular animation series Bluey for the outstanding children’s program and Channel Seven presenter Sonia Kruger took home the top prize at the Logie awards.
Crazy Fun Park’s win surprised even its creator, Nicholas Verso. He ascended the stage to accept the gong and immediately apologised for besting the competition. “I know everyone comes up and goes, ‘We didn’t think we were going to win’ but seriously, we were up against Bluey,” he said.
Continue reading...‘Certainly motherhood has not blunted her competitive instincts’ David Basheer said during Matildas’ Women’s World Cup match against Ireland
A Channel Seven commentator has been criticised for saying Matildas midfielder Katrina Gorry has retained her competitive instincts despite becoming a mother, as the opening match of the Women’s World Cup gave the network a national broadcast audience of 1.974 million.
“Certainly motherhood has not blunted her competitive instincts, that’s for sure,” Seven’s David Basheer said, as the Matildas midfielder won a tackle.
Continue reading...Lawyers for Network Ten are examining footage from Spotlight interview as they prepare to defend themselves against Lehrmann’s defamation case
Lawyers for Network Ten are examining raw footage of Channel Seven’s recent interview with Bruce Lehrmann as they prepare to defend themselves against his defamation case.
Lehrmann is currently suing Network Ten, Lisa Wilkinson and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in the federal court, alleging they defamed him by wrongly suggesting he raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in 2019.
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Continue reading...Network concerned that Victoria Racing Club partnership with gambling company is at odds with ‘preferences of its viewers and advertisers’
The Ten network has pulled out of bidding for the Melbourne Cup, citing the new focus on gambling by rights-holder Tabcorp as a reason.
Ten has been the Melbourne Cup Carnival broadcaster since 2019 after signing a five-year deal reportedly worth $100m which saw the cup move from Seven, where it had been broadcast since 2002.
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Continue reading...Complaint also relates to mention of letter allegedly sent by Brittany Higgins to Wilkinson, who claims she has no record of it
Lisa Wilkinson has lodged an official complaint with the Seven Network about a program that featured an interview with Bruce Lehrmann and about a separate segment on morning television.
Wilkinson lodged the complaint on Tuesday alleging the broadcasts breached commercial television standards, and can escalate the complaint to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) if it is not resolved, her lawyers confirmed.
Continue reading...Seven or Nine would have to partner with Fox to compete with bid, but they are talking up their ability to promote the game
In the life cycle of a Cricket Australia administration, nothing matters more than the home broadcast deal. There is prize money, ICC distributions, overseas broadcasts, but the value of showing the major summer sport to an Australian audience dwarfs the lot. Everything that CA does depends on that cashflow, as well as keeping cricket in front of as many people as possible. The current contract has another season to run, but with channels Seven, Nine, Ten, and Fox Sports all keen for a slice next time, everyone wants a deal done now.
Last time, in 2018 in the dying months of James Sutherland’s time in charge, was a landmark missed opportunity. Channel Ten had spent the preceding years making a success of the Big Bash League, and with the backing of US giant CBS, offered $960m to put every Australian cricket match on free-to-air. That meant domestic men’s and women’s games, boosting the Sheffield Shield and the 50-over competitions along with internationals and the BBL. But CA wanted to top a billion dollars, and after a verbal agreement with Ten, reneged to split the rights between Seven and Fox for a relatively small increase to $1.18bn, with plenty of that value in contra advertising rather than in cash.
Continue reading...Bid follows national broadcaster being turned down last election by Scott Morrison to appear in leaders’ debate despite its broad reach
The ABC has called for legislation to ensure it hosts and broadcasts at least one leaders’ debate during a federal election campaign.
The public broadcaster made the case for a mandated ABC election debate in a submission to the inquiry into the 2022 federal election, which continues its public hearings in Canberra on Tuesday.
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Continue reading...Seven West Media says the issue was unique to certain web and mobile platforms for which it does not have broadcast rights
Instead of watching the AFL grand final kick-off on Saturday some frustrated fans found themselves watching episodes of Border Security due to a glitch with Seven’s streaming service.
People who planned to watch the game remotely on 7plus began posting on social media about the technical issue, which saw them served episodes of the popular reality show instead of the game.
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Continue reading...Fans upset after Foxtel and Kayo awarded exclusive rights to Saturday games for first eight rounds in Melbourne
The Albanese government has welcomed the AFL’s historic broadcast deal with Seven and Foxtel and noted it won’t reduce the number of free-to-air games, while still reiterating concerns about popular sports being locked behind paywalls.
In a statement on Wednesday, the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, noted fans’ concerns about changes to free-to-air coverage of AFL games under the deal.
Continue reading...Request for reimbursement from Kerry Stokes’s private company not made until after court told of network’s legal financing
The Seven Network was paying the legal fees of several SAS witnesses for Ben Roberts-Smith in his defamation trial until one of them revealed the payments in the federal court, contradicting Seven’s claim last week that the former soldier’s evidence about the source of the payments was “not correct”.
When the former SAS soldier, known as Person 5, told the court last week that his solicitor and barrister are being paid for by Seven, the network said another arm of the empire owned by Seven West Media chair, Kerry Stokes, was footing the bill.
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Continue reading...‘This is the most important email I have ever missed,’ Seven’s Matt Doran says after failing to listen to singer’s new album 30
A “mortified” Australian TV reporter has tried to explain how he bungled an exclusive interview with the singer Adele about her new album.
The host of Channel Seven’s Weekend Sunrise, Matt Doran, and a crew flew to London for the chat, which reportedly cost A$1m to secure and would have been Adele’s only Australian interview. After Doran conceded during the interview that he had only heard one track from her latest work, 30, the interview was canned.
Continue reading...Seven terminates contract and British far-right figure expected to leave country after joking about plans to breach quarantine rules
British far-right figure Katie Hopkins has been dumped as a cast member of Seven’s Big Brother VIP and will leave the country after breaching her contract, Guardian Australia can reveal.
Hopkins, 46, broadcast a live video from what she claimed was a Sydney hotel room on Saturday morning, describing Covid-19 lockdowns as “the greatest hoax in human history” while joking about elaborate plans to breach quarantine rules.
Continue reading...One online distributor has withdrawn the #MeToo memoir, but other stores have stocked it, and the publisher insists it will not be withdrawn
Ronan Farrow’s book on the #MeToo movement has been withdrawn from sale in Australia by one online bookseller but was available in bookstores on Tuesday despite a legal threat from an Australian journalist who Farrow has previously alleged helped to protect the disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein from negative publicity.
The book, Catch and Kill, was released in Australia on Tuesday and was on sale in some shops, including Readings and WH Smith in Melbourne. But customers who ordered it from the online seller Booktopia were told it had been “withdrawn from sale” and had their payment refunded.
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