Film journalist Michael Bodey wrote a 2000-word piece in the Weekend Australian about the dire consequences of ending At the Movies. Bodey decried the ABC’s decision not to replace Margaret and David when they retire in December. “It was a following large and consistent enough to suggest the ABC walking away from 400,000-ish viewers late on a Tuesday night is folly, despite that format having worked up its rapport and respect across 28 years,” he wrote. Bodey interviewed industry figures about the loss of a program that has had such a positive effect on the local film industry. The piece also quoted an interviewed, unnamed source who was critical of recent stand-in hosts Judith Lucy and Jason Di Rosso, saying they lacked the gravitas of Margaret and David: ‘Bringing in Lucy and Di Rosso as potential replacements for Pomeranz and Stratton was “just ridiculous casting”, says one distributor. “(They) need to be people they’ve trusted or (whose reviews they have) been reading.” ’
But back at ABC TV on Monday morning, the piece raised a few eyebrows because Bodey had failed to mention he had pitched himself to them as a replacement for Margaret and David in recent months.
Racing to keep Cathy Freeman away from the media
On Wednesday morning Seven West Media had Olympic champion Cathy Freeman poised and ready to recreate her historic win in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Freeman had been hired to perform in front of hundreds of advertisers and media assembled for the 2015 programming launch, a daunting prospect for someone renowned for her shyness. It was day two of the most lavish presentation Seven had ever staged: involving six groups of media buyers and journalists, including the Weekly Beast, being led through a 90-minute presentation across several stages at Fox Studios. As Freeman’s 400m run was replayed on giant screens, Bruce “Mr Olympics” McAvaney strolled on stage repeating the historic commentary live. Freeman then appeared from the other side of the stage and was interviewed after the “race” about how it felt to win in front of a home crowd. But Freeman knew nothing of the drama that was being played out behind the scenes. Her friend and fellow athlete Nova Peris had been quoted by the NT News that morning saying Freeman was “so, so dumb” and “can’t talk for shit”. The national media was chasing Freeman for a response. Desperate for Freeman not to find out and get upset, Seven staffers kept her well away from computers, TV, radio and newspapers, not to mention the hundreds of reporters swarming around the set. When a Seven News crew turned up at the studios to interview her they were turned away. The show must go on.
Behind the scenes at Seven
Freeman’s appearance was not the only spectacular element of the Seven so-called upfronts (programming launch). The network’s news and current affairs offering was also unveiled with much fanfare. As a helicopter hovered behind guests on one of the stages, various Seven presenters including Sunday Night’s Chris Bath magically appeared as if to alight from the chopper. With Today Tonight now consigned to the dustbin of tabloid TV, Sunday Night was the focus of the presentation. What guests didn’t realise as they listened to Mike Willesee bang on about the brilliant exclusives the program brought us was that back at Seven headquarters his executive producer, Mark Llewellyn, was engaged in a confrontation that involved pushing producer Paul Waterhouse up against a wall in his office. Llewellyn has been suspended pending an investigation and won’t be back at work this year, if at all.
Foxtel goes lavish, while ABC stays quiet
Foxtel-MCN 2015 upfronts were held at the Sydney Theatre on Thursday and didn’t disappoint. There was a sprinkling of big stars in Australian actor Chris Hemsworth and model Linda Evangelista, as well as home-grown reality TV celebrities from Foxtel’s local hit the Real Housewives of Melbourne. Masses of fresh flowers decorated the foyer and there was a lavish candy bar for guests to stock up for Halloween the next day.
Nine, Ten and SBS will hold their launches in coming weeks but we can reveal there will be no such celebration of 2015 for Aunty. Sources say the ABC has decided not to hold a programming launch this year for the first time anyone can remember. The uncertainty surrounding the budget has made it impossible. Executives felt it would be sending the wrong signal to staff and the government if the national broadcaster was to spend up big on advertising its wares with a shiny function. After all, an estimated 300 staff – many of whom make the TV programs – are expected to lose their jobs in coming months.
Australia Channel gets going
But the ABC’s loss of funding, which included the de-funding of the Australia Network, was someone else’s gain. The chief executive of Australian News Channel, Angelos Frangopoulos, announced the launch of Australia Channel last week, a Sky News venture that would “deliver 24/7 coverage of news, business and sport, directly from Australia’s state capitals and beyond, to audiences across Asia and around the globe”. The death of the Australia Network, funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, earlier this year was a green light for the Rupert Murdoch-backed venture to go ahead on 1 November. Speaking at the annual Casbaa convention in Hong Kong, Frangopoulos revealed Sky News had “ripped the costs out of broadcasting”. He was reported by Mumbrella Asia as saying: “We don’t have many editors. Journalists cut their own stories and operate the studio control rooms. It looks like a traditional broadcast studio, but we’ve the ripped costs out of it. Every single person we employ has to be journalist or a content maker of some kind.” Frangopoulos also admitted Sky’s business model is challenged. “The problem in Australia is that there is a relatively low penetration of pay-TV, although Foxtel has recently rolled out a new pricing model that we think will turbo charge connections.” (You didn’t hear that kind of rhetoric at the Foxtel upfronts back in Sydney.) But the Australia Channel has not had a promising start. Over the weekend the service did not appear on australiachannel.com.au. Instead a message on the website promised it was “coming soon”.
McClymont inspires with Andrew Olle media lecture
On Friday night in Sydney, the Andrew Olle media lecture was given by Fairfax’s award-winning investigative journalist Kate McClymont. McClymont’s inspiring speech was rewarded with a standing ovation from a crowd hungry for some good news about journalism. The only slip-up on the relatively staid night appeared to be the premature announcement of the 2015 winner of the Andrew Olle scholarship (Elise Worthington) by the previous recipient, Gina McKeon, in her thank-you speech. McKeon excitedly told Worthington she was going to have a great time before the evening’s host, the ABC’s Richard Glover, had a chance to announce the winner.
Rupert bows to Lachlan at News awards
There were very few News Corp staffers at the Olle function in Redfern, largely because over the other side of town at Sydney’s Royal Randwick, 260 of News Corp’s finest were gathered for the 2014 News awards for excellence in editorial. Surprisingly, Rupert Murdoch was not in attendance for the first time in the in-house awards’s 10-year history. Instead son Lachlan, recently returned to the fold, was there to represent the empire. The Australian’s grand entry in the digital innovation category did not win for the newspaper’s impressive 50th anniversary special. Instead the honours went to the more prosaic-sounding “editorial network” for its “long form storytelling template”.
But the talk of the night at Royal Randwick was the lengthy acceptance speech by the Courier-Mail’s editor, Chris Dore – Dorey to his mates. Accepting the award for newspaper of the year, Dore was so determined to thank everybody he went on for so long the music was turned up Academy-award style to get him to wind up. He ignored it and carried on.
