BotD: Enero loses ground; Sheargold off air after Matildas comment; Foxtel locks in last minute Max deal
Welcome to Best of the Day, written in a quiet corner of the Mumbrella CommsCon judging. Today: Foxtel engineers an HBO soft landing, Enero delivers a rough set of numbers; and Marty Sheargold apologises for his Triple M comments abiut women’s football.
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Motio jumps as Enero falters on ASX results
Enero Group lost ground on the Unmade Index today after reporting disappointing half-year numbers to the ASX.
The company, which owns creative agency BMF, said that EBITDA profit was down by a third to $15.7m while revenue fell by 12% to $88.3m.
Meanwhile outdoor player Motio saw its share price jump after giving good news to the market. It reported EBITDA profit of $1m for the half, up from $100,000 the same time last year. Revenue rose from $3.7m to $5.3m.
The Unmade Index, which tracks the performance of all the ASX-listed media and marketing stocks, slipped slightly, losing 0.1% to land on 571.3 points.
Best of the Day: Max names the date; UnLtd exit; Nine job fears; Sheargold apology
Foxtel wrangles a Max deal
Foxtel announced a least-bad arrangement which will keep its toe in the water with Warner Bros Discovery after streaming service Max launches on March 31.
The downside for Foxtel Group will be the loss of most WBD content - including its library of HBO drama content - from streaming service Binge. However, notable exceptions will be shows that debuted on Binge including The White Lotus and The Pitt, which will still have 30-day rights.
And subscribers to Foxtel’s residential service will still get access to Max content at no additional charge via their iQ3, 4 and 5 boxes, although it will no longer be available on Foxtel Go.
Union warns on coming Nine cuts
Journalists’ union the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance raised the alarm about Nine’s mooted $100m round of cost cutting. Communications director Mark Phillips told Mumbrella: “The key to a successful media business is investment in quality, independent journalism. You can’t cut your way to growth.”
Stephen Hunt out of UnLtd already
The boss of the media industry’s charitable foundation UnLtd has announced his departure after a period of just nine months. Stephen Hunt said he would “explore new opportunities”. UnLtd chair Karen Halligan said in a statement: “UnLtd is much more than the individuals who work there.”
More podcast spend in the pipeline
The majority of media agencies expect to increase their advertising spend on podcasts in the coming months, the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s annual Audio Advertising State of the Nation report says. It was launched at today’s IAB Audio Summit in Sydney.
Sheargold apologises
Triple M’s Marty Sheargold apologised for offending fans of women’s football after suggesting the Matildas were “behaving like year 10 girls”. The ABC reported that today’s edition of his show did not go to air.
Time to leave you to your evening. If you’d like an audio enhancement for your commute home, then the Mumbrellacast has just gone live. Hal Crawford, Nathan Jolly and I tackled ex-ABC chair Ita Buttrose’s declaration of war against managing director David Anderson, the Max launch, and how results season has unfolded.
And if you have a particularly long commute, I was also a guest on today’s episode of Fear & Greed, talking about the future of Nine and Domain.
We’ll be back with more tomorrow.
Have a great night.
Toodlepip…
Tim Burrowes
Publisher - Unmade + Mumbrella
tim@unmade.media
