Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade.
Today’s edition features a conversation with Paramount bosses Beverley McGarvey, and Jarrod Villani.
And in this post, we also reveal the first speaker lineup for our Compass event, reflecting on the year gone by, and projecting into 2024. Today we share our Sydney lineup.
Further down, the Unmade Index remains becalmed for a third day.
Only Unmade’s paying members get full access to all of our content and archives. They also get a complimentary ticket to next month’s Compass event. Upgrade today.
Navigating the stormy seas with industry wavemakers at Unmade’s Compass
Cat McGinn writes:
We can today announce the Sydney speakers for Unmade’s end-of-year industry mixer Compass.
The panel will be reflecting on their challenges, achievements and lessons learned from 2023 - arguably one of the most turbulent years in media - and sharing their projections for 2024.
Representing a broad cross-section of the industry, and with some remarkable stories to tell, the panel will share their perspectives on the year that was, their accomplishments and challenges, and what they’ve learned along the way. We’ll be asking them to offer their projections for 2024, and their advice for marketing folk on steering a course through the choppy waters ahead.
The man responsible for Optus’ investment in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, and helping to propel the Matildas viewership to over 11m Australians, Clive Dickens, Vice President, television, content and product development, will share his learnings, plans for subscription streaming, and AI.
Dickens will be joined by Lauren Joyce, chief strategy & connections officer, ARN. The parent company of the radio network is currently in talks to take over rival network SCA.
The panel also features Leah Jackson, head of digital marketing at Goodman Fielder, who is spearheading the FMCG giant’s omnichannel and retail media innovations in the Australian market.
Henry Innis, co-founder & CEO of Mutinex will share his data-driven market predictions, after the company announced a $9.5m capital raise this week, taking the market mix modelling platform’s valuation to $75m.
And Simone Gupta, co-founder of hotly tipped new indie creative shop Supermassive will share her insights on the evolving nature of client relationships. Supermassive launched back in June on the premise of “effective non-traditional advertising and earned media” - in other words integrating PR with creative output under a single banner.
Unmade Compass Sydney takes place at the Arthouse Hotel on the evening of November 14. The Melbourne edition is on November 21 and the Brisbane event is on November 22.
The Sydney edition of Compass will also feature the winners announcement for the REmade Awards for retail media. The shortlist was announced at last month’s REmade conference.
The speakers for Melbourne and Brisbane will be announced over the next few days.
Unmade’s paying members are entitled to a complimentary ticket. Tickets are also on sale for $195 each.
Australia’s most misunderstood TV company?
At this year’s Upfronts season, Paramount took a different path to its rivals. The owner of Network 10, along with streaming services, Tenplay, Paramount+ and Pluto TV, Paramount dispensed with the usual 1000-guests in a giant hall approach, for more select briefings. It had a different story to tell.
By some distance the third placed commercial TV network with Ten, the focus of the company increasingly follows the priorities of its US-based owner Paramount.
Most obviously, that will mean the launch of a local advertising tier for the fast growing Paramount+.
In conversation with Unmade’s Tim Burrowes, chief operating officer Jarrod Villani and chief content officer Beverley McGarvey, discussed Paramount’s programming strategy for the year ahead, beginning with the question of whether they have made the philosophical leap that linear television is no longer their first priority.
McGarvey argues that has not happened yet. “I wouldn't say that linear is not a priority. It is a priority. It's incredibly important. There's still massive reach on linear. And there's still massive advertising dollars on linear. However, what I would say is that philosophically we are in a place that we consider - what is the right scheduling for this? Where should it play? Where can we get the best value from it? Where do audiences want to consume it? So I think we are philosophically in a multi platform place, but 10 remains critical in that,” McGarvey says.
“When you look at any of our businesses, you see that the vast majority of content that is consumed on free streaming platforms like Tenplay comes from linear. So it is first shown on linear currently. To divorce linear from free IP based viewing on Tenplay is not the way in which we visualise our business,” Villani adds.
When asked the hard question of whetehr they are willing to go on tolerating the third place share Paramount is getting amongst the networks in the longterm, Villani argues the role of Ten in the landscape is ‘not fully understood yet’.
“We understand what makes up our share. We make tweaks to that every year to improve that. It really does come down to, what is the purpose of our free-to-view offering? How is it contributing to the business? When I say that, I mean contributing to all of the business. It's both an economic discussion and it's a promotional discussion. We've spoken a lot… about the evolving ecosystem of Paramount in Australia. That is not something that I think is fully understood yet and we'll continue to work away at that,” Villani says.
Survivor and I’m A Celebrity are set to appear early in the 2024 schedule, as well as the return of Gladiators to Australian television. A number of the Paramount+ commissions like NCIS Sydney and Top Gear Australia are also expected to eventually end up on Ten.
“The reason we commissioned Gladiators is we were looking for a big event series for January that felt like something the whole family could watch. And if you think about what we've had success in January with over the last number of years, it has been I'm a Celebrity and the Big Bash. Big family entertainment with sort of an adventurous feel. Gladiators is fantastic. You can get behind your favorite one. It appeals to kids, they're great athletes and the contenders are incredible,” McGarvey says.
Unmade Index treads water again
Tim Burrowes writes:
The Unmade Index lacked any clear direction for a third day in a row on Wednesday, once again finishing almost flat, with a growth of just 0.09% to 571.4 points.
Nine improved by 0.81% helping it avoid the ignominy - for now at least - of falling below a $3bn market capitalisation. Meanwhile, Seven is still teetering on falling below a $400m market cap.
At the small end of town, our of home player Motio continued its improvement with a growth of another 6.06%. And The Market Herald continued to lose value, with its share price now down 60% for the year.
Time to leave you to your Thursday. We’ll be back with an end of week update tomorrow.
Editing was courtesy of Abe’s Audio, the people to talk to about voiceovers, sound design and podcast production.
Message us: letters@unmade.media
'Still massive advertising dollars in linear': How Paramount is balancing a streaming future with Ten's broadcast present