BotW: Why Nine had to get rid of Cullen; Optus Sport on the block; Ooh Media readies for cuts
Welcome to Best of the Week, written back home in Tasmania after a crazy few days on the big island.
The working week began on Monday with a 4.30am alarm call to fly to Sydney to announce we’re buying Mumbrella, and ended on last night’s Jetstar flight home. The first episode of MediaLand dropped into my feed just as I was turning on Flight Mode. I bet the Germans have a word for the slight sense of shame that one experiences when listening to your own radio show in public.
This week: Why Nine had to ditch Alex Cullen; Optus Sport for sale; and a death rattle for Disrupt Radio.
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Nine’s tennis troubles
For a Sydney-based media company, a lot of Nine’s troubles sure centred around the postcode 3004 this week.
In contrast with one of the least exciting tournaments in the six years Nine has held the rights to the Australian Open tennis, Melbourne Park was the epicentre of an enthralling multi-pronged off-court PR crisis
That included Tony Jones’ crime against musicality in his live cross sledge against Novak Djokovic, thin skinned criticism of impertinent questions from the media from US player Ben Shelton and, most problematically, Alex Cullen’s “McLaren Man” bet.
It became an unexpected test for how Nine’s new management would handle the issues, two of which - those featuring Cullen and Jones - were as a result of unforced errors from their own staff.
The most serious problem was the question of presenter Alex Cullen, whose five years with Nine came to a tacky end at the hands of the attention-seeking property investor and occasional lottery promoter Adrian Portelli.
Portelli comes from within Nine’s extended cinematic universe. Across three years he propped up the bidding at The Block finale, including buying all five homes in the 2024 series.
For those who had heard of Portelli (admittedly not me) he was known as Lambo Guy thanks to his arrival at The Block’s 2022 auction in a yellow Lamborghini.
Portelli decided he wanted a rebrand, This month he put out a call on social media offering $50,000 to the first person to refer to him as “McLaren Guy” on air instead.
Cullen took him up on it, doing so in a 5.45am live cross on the Today Show at the end of last week.
It appeared that the Today team was not in on Cullen’s plan, with Sarah Abdo attempting to correct Cullen to Lambo and Karl Stefanovic calling him out on the bet.
Things only blew up though when Portelli posted to social media what appeared to be a screenshot showing a bank transfer to Cullen.
It suggested that Cullen’s original misjudgement - dancing to the tune of a rich guy in what could have been the spur of the moment - was compounded by sharing his bank details with Portelli, and actually taking the money.
Had Cullen instead arranged for the cash to go directly to a charity, the story would have played out differently. But with Portelli boasting about it on social media, it was a terrible look for Nine having one of its journalists taking cash from somebody who is also facing legal issues.
Cullen was quickly suspended and on Thursday night - although Nine was generous enough not to actually use the word - he was sacked.
At any time, Cullen would have been in trouble, but he picked precisely the wrong moment.
Acting Nine CEO Matt Stanton is (by the looks of it successfully) auditioning for the hot seat full time. That includes demonstrating that he can deal with issues quickly and be more decisive than his predecessor Mike Sneesby.
A further factor was the risk of the Australian Communications and Media Authority groaning into action. With recently controversies over Nine’s 3AW and 2GB radio stations not doing third party disclosures properly, Nine has been running extra training for staff. Cullen had to go.
Cullen is a good presenter, able to cross between sport and news. If he takes his licks without complaint now, it should be an interruption rather than a career-ending moment.
Stan slam
Nearly two years ago, we speculated here on Unmade: might Optus get out of the sports streaming game? That began to look even more like a possibility late last year with the news that Clive Dickens, the executive who has been running Optus Sport, was leaving.
As time has gone on the logic has become more compelling. Streaming is starting to consolidate, and Optus is returning to its telco roots.
How we wrote it at the time:
On Monday it emerged, via the Australian Financial Review, that Optus has been talking to Nine about folding it into Stan.
The backbone of Optus Sport is English Premier League football, along with the FA Cup. If a deal was done, it would significantly add to Stan’s attractiveness in the soccer space. It already holds the rights to the Champions League and second tier Europa League.
I suspect that Nine might pay little up front. Optus Sport is probably loss making, seen instead as a value-add for its phone subscribers. A deal might instead focus on how Optus customers continue to benefit, and a revenue share going forward.
If it happens it will also be a good signal of Nine’s strategic intentions for Stan to push for growth in a sector where only Netflix seems to be making the weather. This week Netflix revealed that it grew revenues, and paying subscriber numbers passed 300m households for the first time.
Those subscriber numbers - sadly the last to be revealed on a quarterly basis by Netflix - were particularly impressive considering that the company also conceded that it is yet to nail its advertising offering.
Ooh’s harsh week
The communications industry gets back down to business next week, after the Australia Day long weekend.
In Ooh Media’s case, I understand that next week, likely as early as Tuesday, will be when staff will learn whether they still have jobs. In late December, Ooh Media flagged a restructure “in early 2025” to the ASX, including savings of “at least $15m”.
Given that the mantra had been “survive til 25”, it remains to be seen whether Ooh will be setting the tone for another rough year, or closing out the industry’s bumpy 2024.
Is Disrupt Radio finally over?
The book may have finally closed on the dismal story of Disrupt Radio this week.
The loss-making broadcaster, which launched in 2023, stopped paying its staff last August. It was then locked out of the studios it rented from Sports Entertainment Network and kicked off the SEN DAB+ digital spectrum it was leasing in September.
Since then, Disrupt limped on, restreaming old shows online only, while founder Benjamin Roberts continued to claim that new funding was on the way.
This week, the Disrupt Radio website went down, replaced by an “account suspended” message.
Roberts was not answering his phone, and emails to him are now bouncing back as undeliverable.
'The critics are saying they're going to give us six months': Trying to make sense of Disrupt Radio
Unmade Index on the up
Nine had a strong finish to the week on the Unmade Index, with the share price rising by 1.5% to end Friday on a market capitalisation of $2.1bn. Ooh Media, which moved up and down all week, landed up 0.4% for the day on $649m.
ARN Media lost 1.5% to land on $211m.
The Unmade Index closed up by 0.9% for the day on 452.8 points.
CotW: Drinks for drinks’ sake
In each edition of BotW, our friends at Little Black Book Online highlight their Campaign of the Week
LBB’s APAC reporter Casey Martin writes:
StrangeLove struggled with finding its brand identity. Today the Brave answered its call.
The 15 second spots uses comedy to their advantage. With deadpan acting, the spots tell the audience exactly what StrangeLove offers: ‘Drinks for drinks’ sake’.
The spots are coupled with outdoor ads that also use a dry sense of humour, making snide jabs not only at StrangeLove products but also at places popular within Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.
Time to leave you to your long weekend.
Should you want to hear a little more from me, please do give the first episode of MediaLand a listen. Vivienne Kelly and I went to air with the first episode on ABC Radio National last night. Along with Lambogate, we covered the departure of the ABC’s uber content chief Chris Oliver Taylor, the TikTok ban and the end of Prince Harry’s legal battle with News Corp.
You’ll be able to find MediaLand on the ABC Listen app and all the other podcatching places too. I’d love to know what you think.
Meanwhile, we have a big week ahead. As you will have seen, on Tuesday, the deal to acquire Mumbrella and bring it together with Unmade and The Intermedia Group will complete. It’s going to be a hectic few days.
Have a great weekend.
Toodlepip…
Tim Burrowes
Publisher - Unmade (and, soon, Mumbrella)
tim@unmade.media
I agree Tim, hopefully Alex can have a short break and be picked up by another TV or Radio network. He is a great talent and seems like a good Family man that just made a silly mistake. All easy in hindsight and I sincerely hope he’s ok.
My heart goes out to him and his Family.
I think Disrupt Radio days are numbered.
https://publishednotices.asic.gov.au/browsesearch-notices/notice-details/Disrupt-Media-Limited-655469542/16828653-1a41-4200-ba76-747bc7b8241e