Category Archives: Media business

Virgin Media is most complained about UK broadband provider

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Ofcom figures show Virgin attracted about 32 complaints per 100,000 customers compared with 18 for Now Broadband

Virgin Media is the UK’s most complained about broadband provider according to the latest figures, compounding woes for the firm, which is already under investigation by the communications regulator.

Figures released by Ofcom on Thursday showed that the number of complaints made about Virgin’s internet services between July and September were nearly double that of the next-most complained about provider, with Virgin attracting about 32 complaints per 100,000 customers compared with 18 for Now Broadband.

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Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch meets Volodymyr Zelenskiy in signal of support for Ukraine

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Media mogul was accompanied by Fox News’ Benjamin Hall, who was injured while covering the war, and Jerome Starkey from UK tabloid the Sun

The Fox Corp chief executive, Lachlan Murdoch, has met with Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the Ukrainian capital in what Kyiv said was a “very important signal” of support at a time when global media attention has shifted from the war with Russia.

The media mogul, who last week took over as News Corp chairman from his father, Rupert, was accompanied by two reporters from his stable: Benjamin Hall from Fox News and Jerome Starkey from the UK tabloid the Sun.

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Kemi Badenoch failed to declare meeting with Rupert Murdoch

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Business secretary privately met media mogul in apparent breach of ministerial code of conduct

Kemi Badenoch failed to declare a meeting that she held with Rupert Murdoch days after she was appointed to the cabinet – in a breach of transparency rules.

The business and trade secretary reacted angrily on Monday on social media after it was revealed that she had privately met the media mogul and other executives from his News Corp company in New York in September 2022.

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Lachlan Murdoch ‘doubling down’ on right-wing strategy with Tony Abbott’s nomination to Fox board, say critics

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Endorsement of former Australian prime minister revealed a day after Rupert Murdoch retired as chair of Fox and News Corp

The endorsement of former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott for a position on Fox Corporation’s board by Lachlan Murdoch shows he is “doubling down” on the company’s “right-wing crusading”, critics say.

Murdoch welcomed the nomination in one of his first moves since being announced as sole chair of both Fox and News Corp this week following the retirement of his father, Rupert Murdoch, at the age of 92.

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Major newspapers could face a $40m hit if governments follow Victoria in abandoning print advertising

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Data highlights total government spending on print as experts say Daniel Andrews’ move will be watched

Major metropolitan newspapers could lose up to $40m in advertising revenue if state and federal governments follow Victoria’s lead and pull their print advertising.

In 2022 state and federal governments spent about $40m placing government ads in major capital city newspapers, and another $5m on digital advertising on news websites like heraldsun.com.au and theage.com.au, according to media agency data collected by Standard Media Index.

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ABC coverage of King Charles III coronation tops Australian ratings despite being attacked by monarchists

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After being accused of being ‘obsequious’ over Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, ABC included discussion of colonialism and monarchy’s relevance

The ABC’s broadcast of King Charles’ coronation was labelled “despicable” by monarchists, but viewers loved it and gave the national broadcaster an easy ratings win over the commercial networks.

The king’s procession averaged 1,182,000 viewers on the ABC, putting it ahead of Seven’s 1,096,000 and Nine’s 738,000, according to OzTAM which now measures viewing through broadcast TV and streaming devices.

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NBC Universal chief Jeff Shell out over inappropriate relationship

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Media giant parent Comcast says investigation by outside counsel led to departure of executive

The chief executive of NBC Universal, Jeff Shell, left the media giant on Sunday after acknowledging an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, following a complaint that prompted an investigation, parent company Comcast said.

“I had an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, which I deeply regret,” Shell said in a statement.

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Lachlan Murdoch drops defamation proceedings against independent Australian publisher Crikey

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Move comes days after Fox reached a $US787.5m settlement with the voting equipment company Dominion in a separate defamation lawsuit

Lachlan Murdoch has dropped his defamation proceedings against the independent Australian media company Private Media, the publisher of Crikey.

The Fox Corporation CEO said he was ending the case in light of the settlement in the US of the Dominion lawsuit against Fox News.

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News Corp to cut 1,250 jobs after missing second-quarter estimates

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Reduced ad spends due to rising inflation and higher interest rates have battered Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate

Media conglomerate News Corp said on Thursday that it would cut 1,250 jobs after it missed estimates for second-quarter earnings due to weakness in its news and digital real estate businesses.

Rising inflation and higher interest rates are forcing companies to curb their ad and marketing spend, denting one of the major sources of revenue for companies such as News Corp, which has major publishing platforms including the Wall Street Journal and New York Post in the US, The Sun and The Times in the UK, and The Australian.

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Mail on Sunday editor rejects meeting with Speaker over Angela Rayner story

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David Dillon had been called to a meeting with Sir Lindsay Hoyle after running a story widely condemned as sexist

The Mail on Sunday’s editor has rejected a meeting with the House of Commons speaker after a story that accused Angela Rayner of “distracting” Boris Johnson with her legs.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle had called the newspaper’s editor, David Dillon, to a meeting after it ran the story, which has been widely condemned as sexist by MPs of all political parties and prompted discussion about misogyny in Westminster.

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There is ‘no one News Corp view’ on election, head of company’s Australian arm tells staff

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News Corp Australasia executive chairman issues all-staff memo, with scrutiny on election coverage likely to increase

Rupert Murdoch’s Australian lieutenant has told News Corp journalists there is “no one News Corp view” about the election and that individual editors are free to decide which party to endorse.

Executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, Michael Miller, said it was important to remember that “electorate issues in Surry Hills differ greatly to those in Broken Hill” and that audiences “expect us to interrogate all parties and all sides”.

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Succession-style feud gripping Canada settled as court sides with Edward Rogers

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The fight for Rogers Communications has riven one of Canada’s richest families – and began with an accidental butt dial

For weeks, Canadians have been gripped by a messy public feud splintering one of the country’s richest families. Kicked off by an accidental pocket dial that revealed an executive-level coup attempt, the battle has pitted mother against son, ensnared Toronto’s mayor and drawn comparisons to the HBO show Succession.

Two separate groups of directors have proclaimed themselves the rightful stewards of Rogers Communications, a sprawling C$30bn telecommunications and entertainment empire with interests in media, professional hockey, basketball, baseball, football and soccer.

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Red faces in Rome as street plaque misspells ex-president’s name

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President Sergio Mattarella forced to abandon dedication after officials noticed mistake on stone plaque

The Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, was forced to abandon a ceremony dedicating a road in Rome to one of his predecessors, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, after officials noticed the name on the stone plaque was misspelled.

Instead of “Azeglio”, the street marker said “Azelio”. Mattarella had already turned up to the event on Tuesday, alongside members of Ciampi’s family and the mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, before the embarrassing mistake was noticed, with the lettering showing up clearly through the translucent cloth covering the plaque.

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News Corp exclusive on Chinese ‘bioweapons’ based on discredited 2015 book of conspiracy theories

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Report in the Australian newspaper promoting Sharri Markson’s book on origins of Covid criticised as misleading and alarmist by China analysts

The Australian’s exclusive about a “chilling” document produced by Chinese military scientists is based on a discredited 2015 book containing conspiracy theories about biological warfare which is freely available on the internet.

Written by the paper’s investigations writer, Sharri Markson, the report last Saturday said Chinese military scientists “discussed the weaponisation of Sars coronaviruses five years before the Covid-19 pandemic” and predicted a third world war would be fought with biological weapons.

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It’s not just racism and sexism. The Golden Globes have been sunk by sheer stupidity

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The preposterous Hollywood Foreign Press Association gravy train might have chugged on for ever if its members had just swallowed their pride and done more for diversity

An investigative report by the Los Angeles Times into the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, that notoriously rackety organisation which administers the Golden Globes, has shown an eminently corruptible body drenched in antediluvian attitudes; this has resulted in NBC cancelling its TV coverage of next year’s ceremony and Tom Cruise handing back the three Globes he has personally won over the years.

Related: Golden Globes backlash: Tom Cruise hands back awards and NBC drops broadcast

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Google and Facebook: the landmark Australian law that will make them pay for news content

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Despite protestations from both companies, the Australian parliament is set to pass legislation it says is needed to boost public interest journalism

The Australian parliament is poised to pass a landmark media law that would make Google and Facebook pay news publishers for displaying their content.

The Australian law is separate to a deal Facebook made to pay mainstream UK news outlets millions of pounds a year to license their articles, but has a similar motivation.

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Larry King dies, Tom Brokaw retires – and the ‘heroic age’ of TV news slips further away

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Experts agree the great days of US news broadcasting are long gone, but this week still brought poignant reminders

As Tennyson – and Withnail’s Uncle Monty – had it, the old order changeth, yielding place to new. Larry King, whose death was announced on Saturday, was not the only giant of US TV news to leave the scene this week.

Related: Larry King, talk-show titan who lit up worlds of politics and showbiz

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Alone and disconnected: the woman left unable to call her dying partner

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Problems with internet and phone service were once just an inconvenience. Now they can prove to be catastrophic

Cut off by telecoms company, pensioner missed call as partner died of Covid-19

Barbara Parry* arranged to switch her phone and broadband account from Sky to Now TV in March, a week before lockdown. Instead, she was left incommunicado as her line was cancelled and her phone number reallocated.

During the following four weeks, as she pleaded in vain to be reconnected, her partner contracted Covid-19. He died four days later in hospital. Due to the blunders by Now TV, he was unable to call Parry from his deathbed and she was unable to say goodbye. The news was broken by a relative as the hospital could not get through on her cancelled number.

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Mail publisher had agenda of ‘offensive’ stories about Meghan, court told

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Duchess sues publisher of British newspapers over use of letter to father Thomas Markle

A newspaper was accused of “stirring up” issues between the Duchess of Sussex and her estranged father, Thomas Markle, then using it to justify publishing a “private and confidential” letter, a court heard.

Lawyers representing Meghan said she was distressed at the realisation that Associated Newspapers had an agenda of “intrusive and offensive” stories about her, a judge was told.

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Johnson met Murdoch on day he signalled general election bid

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News Corp owner was the only media baron the prime minister saw in his first three months

Boris Johnson saw Rupert Murdoch for a “social meeting” on the day he signalled his intention to seek a general election last year, according to new transparency disclosures.

Johnson saw the media billionaire on 2 September, the day when Downing Street briefed that he would be seeking an autumn election if his Brexit plans were thwarted. In the event the election was pushed back to December.

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