The Aus Media Report

Right now Australia is mostly under lockdown, dragging with it the Australian cinema industry. NSW & VIC represent about 70% of the Australian exhibition industry. This week on The Aus Media Report there are two conversations, each representing different conversations happening within the industry.

First up there is a chat with Eddie Tamir and Benji Tamir. The Tamir family own and operate several independent cinemas in Australia. Three cinemas in Melbourne - The Classic, the Lido, and Cameo; and one in Sydney - The Ritz Randwick. What are the challenges they have faced as an independent exhibitor in Australia? And what is their plans for re-opening (spoiler alert: it is a huge investment in refurbing the Ritz cinema).

After that is an interview with Brodie Fogg from Reviews.org. They just did a survey of Australian media consumers and found that 80% of Australians say they are pirating less than they used to. But piracy isn't going away completely down under. What does the survey tell us about how Australians are watching their screen entertainment? 

Mumbrella founder Tim Burrowes has penned the book 'Media Unmade: Australian Media's Most Disruptive Decade'. He joins the podcast this week for a conversation about the past ten years in Australian media, along with a very general chat about the local media market.

There's two great interviews this week.

Just how much influence does Sky News Australia have? In a recent piece for Inside Story 'Is Sky News taking Australia by storm?' journalist and media academic Margaret Simons argues that reports of the news and opinion channels influence is overblown and she downplays recent reports of Sky News Australia's success in connecting with online audiences.

Well-known former TV producer Rob McKnight is launching a new streaming video service - Live+. He's a huge believer in live, studio-based TV and is out to bring live TV to the world of on-demand streaming. 

The service will launch later in the year. Its announcement today got the attention of Dan Barrett, so he pulled McKnight into the Aus Media Report studios to chat about the new venture. Dan's a little bit skeptical. Can McKnight win him over?

This week on The Aus Media Report we are talking about streaming services.

How much do you know about TV from Africa? Probably not a lot. There’s a new streaming service that is set to change that. It’s called Demand Africa. It quietly launched in Australia streaming both a free streaming linear channel and subscription video on demand content through its app available on Apple TV, Samsung TV’s, iOS, and Android. The Aus Media Report speaks with Narendra Reddy, the Vice President and General Manager of the service, and also Dean Cates who is the exec in charge of Demand Africa.

Also on the podcast this week is an interview with Samantha Laidlaw - she’s the head of a new local streaming service called Femflix which aims to stream movies that are either driven by female identified creatives or have very strong themes related to women.

This week on the show I chat with Justin Papps from PwC Australia, editor of this year’s Australian Entertainment & Media Outlook 2020-2024. 

The report, now in its 19th year, examines Australian media consumers habits and how they’re changing: Where are Australians spending their money and time when watching TV? What are they listening to on the radio and Spotify? How are they consuming news and entertainment? 

The report looks at consumption over the past year, but also offers projections up to 2024. It's all incredibly interesting.

You can read the report yourself - download it from the PWC website.

Dan Barrett is joined this week by film critic Luke Buckmaster (The Guardian, Crikey, Flicks.com.au) to discuss where technology is taking cinema. 

Is the future VR? AR? Is it something entirely different? How will we engage with screens going forward? What happens to cinemas as movies evolve with audience interests?

This week on The Aus Media Report I am chatting with Jake Challenor. He’s the publisher of radio industry news site Radio Today. We discuss everything from the loss this year of the biggest name in radio, to Nine’s investment in bringing Brisbane’s only commercial talk station back to life, through to radio stations preparedness for the incoming digital disruption.

Spotify unveiled a new product feature a fortnight ago that caught my attention. The streaming music service has been pushing aggressively into podcasting and has announced that podcast producers can now place songs during a podcast.

It is Spotify merging music and talk for its subscribers. You could be forgiven for thinking that this is starting to sound a lot like radio. Is this Spotify aggressively taking on radio? Or is this an entirely new form?

On The Aus Media Report we speak with Podnews editor James Cridland about the new Spotify feature.

After we talk with James Parkinson, the producer and host of podcasts By Association and Gameplay about producing his shows. We also get in a bit of Spotify chat.