Welcome to the latest episode of the Mumbrellacast, voted Australia's favourite sound. This week, we open by dissecting the last-minute changes to the News Bargaining Incentive, which made its long-awaited parliamentary debut today. It seems that former minister Peter Garrett unwittingly helped inform the bill, with his Midnight Oil lyric: "the rich get richer, the poor get the picture", as the big media giants look very likely to swallow up the majority of this tech-giant tax, while the smaller publishers will be force to fight it out for a few meta-scraps. Meanwhile, the Australian Association Press is dangerously close to needing to add a "powered by Google and Meta" tagline to its name, after it was guaranteed funding from the "incentive". As Tim notes during the podcast, the Albanese government seems to announce its policies first, waits to hear the cries of dissent and/or support, and then simply gives the loudest voice what they want. I guess that's what comes with living in a functioning shout-ocracy. While everyone is talking about ARN losing Kyle and Jackie, and SCA losing advertising dollars by buying a free-to-air TV network in a year that doesn't start with '19', the Sports Entertainment Group is quietly (at least for a bunch of sports commentators) becoming one of the most powerful radio companies in the country. This week they bought New Zealand's Mediaworks, which is the main player in the NZ radio world, and a company that Hal knows intimately, given he worked there for a number of years. This purchase is a big deal for the Australian media landscape, and we chat about why this is. Ikea Australia has gone viral this week, and it's not even because a dog ate an allen key and some sticks and then vomited out a Billy bookcase. No, it's due to a savvy Instagram post that played off the internet's obsession with Wicker man, known in certain online circles as the sexiest wood-based creature since those Lord Of The Rings trees. Ikea has a history of neatly glomming onto online trends, but this looks like its biggest viral success in recent memory. (Maybe Ikea can do a Dave Hughes post next, given he clearly has a few loose screws.) On Tuesday, SCA released its first results since the Voltron-like merging of Seven's TV and publishing business -- both of which shed advertising bucks over the past year -- and SCA's audio business, which continues to grow its advertising revenue. Hal spoke to SCA's CEO Rohan Lund a few hours after the results dropped, and found him to be a persuasive communicator. And, in keeping with Australian broadcasting law, we were unable to finish the show without bringing up Kyle Sandilands. We debate whether or not his shambolic new radio/video/podcast/broadcast hybrid will stand the test of time. Happy listening! Get the latest episodes here. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.
