The Aus Media Report Dan Barrett

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.

First off The Aus Media Report chats with Optus' Clive Dickens about this week's launch of SubHub. SubHub is a new initiative by Optus to bring all of your digital subscriptions under one app, making it easier to keep tabs on what you're subscribed to (and how much it is costing).

The second interview is with Leo Puglisi - he's the Chief Anchor, News Chief, and Founder of streaming video news service 6 News. Last week saw his channel pulled from YouTube for supposed anti-vax sentiment. Within hours he got his channel back. He details what happened that led to his channel being pulled and tells us about his up and coming news business. He's amazing. You'll love this chat.

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.

Margaret Simons joins The Aus Media Report to discuss her experience of watching Sky News Australia for two full weeks recently and what she learned about the channel as it faces serious criticism (and a YouTube suspension) for COVID-19 denialism.

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.