As the cricket season eases into its being, it’s time to reflect on the Channel Nine commentary (read pensioners) team, most of whom are well beyond their use-by dates, mulls Michael Vaughan.
Nine Network
Nine tries to buy itself some balls
Nine is paying about $450,000 an episode to secure the rights to air Top Gear next year and hopefully score itself more male viewers. That’s a lot of money for a network that is $3.8 billion in debt.
Pay TV’s biggest nightmare is GO
Nine Network’s new channel GO last night hit a unique milestone: it equalled the share of SBS’s main analogue channel. Was it just because last night didn’t have any high profile sports events?
Oakes and Seven scuttle Nine’s Canberra merger plan
An audacious attempt by the Nine network to close its Parliament House bureau in Canberra and merge it with the Seven network operation has failed, once Laurie Oakes found out the secret plans.
Crikey Says: Why no one watches free-to-air TV anymore
Commercial networks can afford to treat viewers how they like when it comes to sport, because they are protected from competition by the anti-siphoning scheme. No amount of angry fan outrage will see any change.
Hey Hey, it’s, er, some day and it’s ratings fodder
Two announcements from the Nine Network have revealed the cynicism at the heart of TV programming, Hey Hey It’s Saturday is attempting to bleed Celebrity Masterchef viewers.
Tips and rumours: Tips and rumours: Old is new again at Myer
What brand is Myer rehashing as it prepares to flog the business later this year? Also, is there really a worse transport company than our airlines? Apparently so…
Tips and rumours: Tips and rumours: Comings and goings in the Nine newsroom
There’s movement at the station down at Nine Melbourne, Fairfax’s traineeships still on suspension, Woolies builds its own hardware team, and more from the Crikey tipsters.
Will Nine’s cash-cow KAK be put out to pasture?
Believe it or not, daytime TV queen Kerri-Anne Kennerley is a nice little money-spinner for Nine, and she’s paid accordingly, but with budget cuts looming at the network, tough decisions have to be made. Will KAK get the chop? Or will another network be willing to pay her $500k-plus salary?
WIN, loss, WIN, loss, as morale plummets
Staff purges at WIN TV, with both the CFO and the CEO being sacked this week, have led to a drop in staff morale. The reasons for the sackings are not known, especially since WIN has been doing better than most in the TV industry this year.
Nine shake-up embraces Seven’s success
The TV industry has been stunned by the the personnel involved in the latest reshuffle at Channel Nine, which seems like a round up of people involved in the low points of Australian TV.
Tips and rumours: Eating chocolate bars behind bars?
Which prison inmate is too fat to get out of bed? Who is really in charge of Nine’s programming? What’s happening with the ATO website? Tipsters tell all.
Tips and rumours: Langbroek staff forced out?
Have four employees of Queensland opposition leader John-Paul Langbroek’s office been forced out? Also, Qantas re-using their plastic knives and trouble at St George.
The second coming of John Westacott
All the publicity about how John Westacott will return to save 60 Minutes from its current appalling performance ignores one very salient point: 60 Minutes’ problems are all of his doing.
How Channel Nine fudged their chance to grab MasterChef
In the annals of Australian TV there are a few stories about networks rejecting programs that other networks subsequently picked up and made a hit — but this has to be the biggest doozie…
Laying down the Law: Nine tightens the belt
Nine have some spare dosh for cheque-book journalism, but not for their own staff, apparently.
Nine Go!es for the yoof
Nine has announced their new multichannel, Go!, with a line-up of shows that could pose a formidable threat to Ten’s teen demographic.
THISafternoon gets the boot
It’s back-to-the-future for The Nine Network, which has canned its quasi-news program, THISafternoon within only three weeks of it starting weekdays at 4.30pm.
You beauty: Nine spruiks THIS afternoon
Nine’s Head of News Mark Calvert identifies the major selling point of new show THIS afternoon: the hosts are a bit of alright.
Goodbye John ‘fuckability’ Westacott
As he snaps on his gold watch, the eulogies for John Westacott keep pouring into Crikey.
