TV bosses criticise ABC's deal with Netflix
ABC's partnership with Netflix to produce an Australian TV series has drawn the ire of commercial television bosses as the under pressure public broadcaster explores new ways to fund its operations, The Australian reports.
The deal sees Netflix fund 15% of the second season of paranormal series Glitch, while the taxpayer funds 60% through the ABC and Film Victoria. In return, Netflix secures global SVOD rights to show the series as a 'Netflix Original' in all other markets.
ABC says the deal will allow the cash-strapped broadcaster to produce a higher quality, making the taxpayer dollar and the show's distribution stretch further.
Seven West Media CEO Tim Worner told The Australian the deal means taxpayer money is being used to “subsidise foreign multinational companies who don't even pay tax”, while Nine Entertainment CEO Hugh Marks says Netflix will be able to claim it co-produced an Australian series for a relatively little price.
Politicians also waded into the debate. Federal senator Nick Xenophon pointed out the irony of the ABC doing a deal with a company that is domiciled in a tax haven months after Four Corners ran an expose on tax havens.
Ritson: Rio Olympics a 'digital disaster' for broadcasters
Branding professor Mark Ritson says the digital streaming of the Olympic Games has been grossly overstated by sections of the media and paled in comparison to the volume of content consumed on television.
In his weekly column for The Australian, Ritson points out the number of minutes watched on Seven's Rio Olympic app only amounted to 1.9% of total viewing - 325 million minutes. This is dwarfed by the 20.7 billion minutes on television.
“Ask the average marketer what we learned from the Olympic Games and eight out of 10 will trot out the death of free-to-air TV and the triumph of digital video,” he said.
“Unfortunately, I have the significant disadvantage of defining an audience in the rather cumbersome empirical manner of one who worked in marketing during the 20th century. Excuse my ancient approach, but if you look at the actual proportion of total viewed minutes, guess how much of it was watched digitally via Seven? The answer is 1.9%.”
After the games, Seven West Media chief revenue officer Kurt Burnette urged caution about comparing Rio's digital viewing metrics to TV.
Crossbenchers hold keys to media reform
The government will need crossbench support if it is to get through changes to media ownership rules as Labor and the Greens “remain unlikely” to back the bill in its current form, Fairfax Media reports.
A Senate committee that has spent recent weeks mulling over the bill is expected to endorse to to go through
despite expectations a Senate committee will today recommend the bill be voted through.
Labor's opposition concerns abolishing the two-out-of-three cross media ownership rule that prevents a media company from owning a newspaper, radio and TV station in the same market.
The Coalition will need to secure nine of the 11 senate votes outside of the major parties, with One Nation senators potentially holding the key.
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