Hannah Blackiston

It was a great day to speak with Nine Radio’s Greg Byrnes yesterday. Melbourne station 3AW had its best result since 1959, while Brisbane’s 4BC had its first number one show in 40 years. Understandably, the content boss of the station was delighted with the result.“It’s absolutely remarkable what br…

Nine Radio’s 3AW has continued its domination in Melbourne breakfast, and in the market as a whole, with another massive jump in GfK radio ratings survey seven.The channel grew by 3.7 percentage points overall to a total market share of 20.6% and by 2.3 percentage points in breakfast, giving ad man …

Independent media agency Paykel has appointed Sarah Keith as its new managing director, effective immediately.Keith joins from Publicis Media Exchange where she was MD. She joins with a 25-year career in media and marketing, including roles at Ten and Fairfax Media.In the role, Keith will be respons…

Matt James has joined Nine as managing director – Melbourne.The announcement sees James return from London where he was global CEO of Zenith Media. He moved into the Zenith role at the beginning of 2019, following a stint as CEO of Publicis Media in Australia.It’s a return to Nine for James who was …

TV data and effectiveness business, Adgile Media, has appointed former Vodafone global head of media, Paul Evans, as its first global CEO.The appointment comes as Adgile Media plans to expand its measurement capabilities into North America and Europe.Evans has served as a board advisor to Adgile for…

The 2020 State of Origin may be running months later than other years, but that hasn’t dampened the rivalry between NSW and Queensland.A new campaign from the NRL, and partner R/GA, uses 40 years of team data to celebrate a ‘Rivalry Without Rival’.NRL – State of Origin 40 Years in the Making from RG…

Ferrero Rocher has launched its first local Christmas campaign in 30 years, revealing a new TVC which urges consumers to ‘Say it With Gold’.The ad pushes the family credits of the festive season, showing several generations celebrating with Ferrero Rocher surprises.ANZ brand head of Ferrero, Anita H…

WPP AUNZ has reported earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of $24.6m for the three months that make up the September quarter – an increase on the previous year of 15.4%, largely due to operation efficiencies, government subsidies and a better performance than what was forecasted.But the holding g…

Basketball Australia has inked a new deal with Foxtel and the ABC which will provide the Women’s’ National Basketball League (WNBL) with more visibility than ever before.As part of the agreement, all 60 games will air live across Australia – four per week on Foxtel and Kayo and weekend games simulca…

The Audited Media Association of Australia (AMAA) has announced the end of its Audited Web Measurement Service which includes digital publications such as Mumbrella, B&T, Campaign Brief and mygc.com.au.The final figures, released for September, show Mumbrella had an average daily user figure of 13,3…

Lisa Levesque has joined Australian Community Media (ACM) as its Victorian strategy director.Levesque most recently led national strategic insights at Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) and has 20 years experience in media agencies and publishing.In her new role, Levesque will drive ACM’s strategic posit…

Subscription TV provider has decided to offer a free version of its sports streaming platform Kayo.The move will hopefully entice more advertisers and subscribers to the service, with Supercars the first sport to be offered outside of the paywall.Kayo launched nearly two years ago and saw its subscr…

Val Morgan Outdoor has announced two promotions and two voluntary redundancies as it consolidates its NSW sales team to improve the experience for clients and agencies.Under the new structure, three group sales managers will look after agency groups across Shop, Active and On-The-Go, seeing the NSW …

Seven is promising a big content spine for 2021 and 2022 featuring new, existing and reimagined formats including Australian Idol, Farmer Wants a Wife, Big Brother, The Voice and Australia’s Got Talent.While there weren’t many surprises in the titles on the list, Seven says the difference will be in…

Seven West Media is promising more data-driven solutions and audience targeting for brands and marketers in 2021, using its unique first-party audience identifier SWMID.Together with second-party data partnerships, the media business will be able to offer new audience insights, activation and measur…

Group M’s chief investment officer, Nicola Lewis, has been promoted to global chief growth officer for the agency group’s addressable TV business Finecast.Lewis will return home to Europe for the role and work alongside global CEO Jakob Nielsen to expand Finecast’s global footprint.In her time as CI…

834,000 metro viewers tuned in on Monday night for the premiere of Seven’s SAS Australia, starring Schapelle Corby, Roxy Jacenko and Nick ‘Honey Badger’ Cummins.Nationally, 1.194m viewers watched the episode. It was also the third most-watched program in the three key advertising demographics of 16-…

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions has confirmed ABC journalist Dan Oakes will not face prosecution over his work on the Afghan Files.It’s been over a year since the Australian Federal Police (AFP) raided ABC headquarters in Sydney and three months since the AFP pushed for charges agai…

Australian Radio Network has named Richie Wright as its content director in Adelaide, overseeing both Mix 102.3 and Cruise 1323.Wright joined ARN in 2016 and has been based in Sydney as assistant content director for Kiis 1065.He has also worked as a producer on the Kyle and Jackie O Show, the Kiis …

6PR’s longtime breakfast co-host, Basil Zempilas, will not renew his contract with the Nine Radio station in 2021, choosing instead to remain loyal to his commitments with Seven.Zempilas is a regular sports commentator for the rival broadcaster. His work with 6PR became an issue when Nine acquired t…