Welcome to The Spy Report at Media Spy - a handy guide to what’s making news in the media industry. Our team of contributors will help keep you up to date on developments in the industry and what we’re talking about in the forums.


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Imparja cuts all news services

ABC News reports that the Alice Springs-based remote station Imparja Television has cut seven reporting and research staff.
Imparja scrapped its half-hour news bulletin last year in favour of Nine’s Brisbane news bulletin, replaced by a weekly current affairs show, Footprints. Sources told the national broadcaster that the program will cease at the end of next […]

November 20th 2008 — 10:31 pmIndustry, Talking Points, Television, Television Programmes
Industry slanging matches juvenile and demeaning: Greiner

The departing chairman of the Australian Subscription Radio and Television Association (ASTRA), Nick Greiner, has criticised the fierce rivalry between the pay-TV and free-to-air sectors, describing it as juvenile and demeaning for the proffesionalism of all involved.
Speaking at the Association’s annual general meeting, the former NSW premier said he now realised he had been “deluded” […]

Newscorp, GTV foreshadow job cuts

Rupert Murdoch is preparing to cut jobs from his Australian and UK newspaper businesses as a result of falling profits and slowing advertising revenues. The media mogul refused to say how many positions would be cuin order to avoid adverse headlines, according to The Age.
News Corporation shares fell 23.1% on Wednesday, closing at their worst […]

November 8th 2008 — 12:37 pmIndustry, New Media, Print, Talking Points, Television
TiVo to expand offerings to on-demand content

TiVo users will soon have access to on-demand content, including TV and movie content from the remote as Seven launch a number of new features for the digital recorder.
According to head of Seven’s TiVo operations Robbee Minicola, the push to get the device on the market prior to the Olympics meant that some of the […]

November 4th 2008 — 3:16 pmDigital Television, Industry
Lloyd’s trafficking charges dropped

ABC News reports that former correspondent Peter Lloyd has agreed to plead guilty to some of the drugs charges he is facing in Singapore.
In return, the authorities have agreed to drop the most serious charge of drug trafficking, which carried a possible jail term of 20 years.
Lloyd’s lawyer says the former correspondent is remorseful about […]

Austar wants more digital changeover involvement

Regional subscription television provider Austar have been excluded from the digital changeover planning and marketing according to its chief executive John Porter, and they want in.    Speaking at a luncheon on Friday, Porter questioned how a digital migration strategy could exist without the involvement of the subscription providers.
With switchover commencing in regional Australia, Austar want […]

November 3rd 2008 — 5:00 pmDigital Television, Industry, Subscription Television
Leckie quits Free TV Board

Channel Seven boss David Leckie has unexpectedly quit the Free TV Australia board after a Seven-led advertising push against subscription television was voted down by fellow board members earlier this week.
Seven had twice put forward a motion to place full page ads in newspapers on Wednesday and Thursday to coincide with the 2009 launch of […]

October 31st 2008 — 11:02 amIndustry, Television
Spiteri settlement ‘a six figure sum’

Former Nine Network reporter Christine Spiteri has settled with her former employer for a ’six figure sum’, according to News Limited. Legal representatives from both sides met today to have the private settlement formally approved.
The former Los Angeles correspondent sought damages of more than $500,000 under the Trade Practices Act after being sacked from Nine. […]

SBS ‘losing its way’

Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser has joined a number of public figures in supporting a statement that says SBS is not only “becoming less special, but it is also losing sight of the original idea of the service”.
Others to endorse the statement include author Raimond Gaita, playwright Stephen Sewell, human rights lawyer Julian Burnside, poet […]

Townsville digital switchover a ‘penalty’

A North Queensland Senator, Ian McDonald, says that parts of Townsville will be left without free-to-air television reception when digital switchover occurs there in 2011.
The senator believes it makes no sense - instead suggesting that the move was politically motivated:
“I have the feeling that the Labor Party is doing a bit of payback on Townsville […]

October 21st 2008 — 2:08 pmDigital Television, Industry, Talking Points, Television