In a ruling this morning, the High Court of Australia found in favour of IceTV in its appeal over a decision that said the EPG provider was involved in copyright infringement.

The Nine Network originally alleged that IceTV was reproducing a literary work when it published a version of the programming schedule for the network. Since then the case has been playing court tennis with decisions and appeals, a lot of waiting and potentially the chance that Goliath would indeed crush David under a giant sandal.

In a brief interview via Twitter, IceTV said that this decision could possibly open up the market to new players in the EPG space but pointed out that “EPGs are still copyrightable. [The] High Court Ruling didn’t change that.”

The Court’s conclusion was brief: “Any reproduction of the time and title information in the IceGuide was not a reproduction of a substantial part of any of the Weekly Schedules (or the Nine Database).” IceTV were awarded costs.

Read the High Court’s judgement to get into the nitty gritty of the decision.

The Australian reports that Sunday and Nightline have both been axed by the Nine Network.

Two news and current affairs programmes that once stood tall in the jungle of commercial network reportage are now gone. Over the past few years both shows, but Sunday especially, were stripped of their traditions and leadership.

It’s a sad day for network news.

Channel Nine will not be moving from its Sydney and Melbourne bases. They have withdrawn both sites from sale.

The Age reports:

The network is now expected to inject capital to digitise its Artarmon Road, Willoughby, studios in Sydney’s north, and the Bendigo Street, Richmond, studios in Melbourne’s east.
When PBL Media listed the properties for sale at the end of last year, institutional developer demand was buoyant, with the two properties at one time expected to have sold for $200 million.
But sharemarket volatility and a slowdown in the residential market changed the dynamic this year. It has been reported that Charter Hall lowered its price for the Willoughby and Richmond sites to about $165 million.

They just can’t seem to catch a break. What is going on with them? Also, it’s obvious from this latest debacle that since the whole PBL Media creation, Nine is being shaken like a piggy-bank trying to get the money out rather than being used to actually make great television.

Source: The Age

After 30 years at Nine, Ray Martin has quit the network.

With reports of his discontent last year – before the reinstatement of David Gyngell as network chief executive – the snubbing of his pitch for a chat show and the earlier start time for the Sunday programme, it’s not much of a surprise.

Martin began at the network as a reporter on 60 Minutes, continuing as host of Midday and A Current Affair, with any number of special hosting gigs thrown in over the years.

Both David Gyngell and Martin claim it’s an amicable split.

Full report from AAP at NineMSN

Ross mentioned this in the comments but it’s worth having its own post.

Wayne Carey, after being arrested the other night (as we discussed on episode 117), has been fired from Nine.

And the Nine Network this morning said it had sacked the former football great turned commentator, a day after radio station 3AW announced his contract would not be renewed.

So now, the only good thing in Footy Classified, according to Ross, is gone. How will Nine sustain the one year old show? Who will replace Carey in his important role? The 50 people who watch Footy Classified will want to know.

Source: The Age

First there was that whole thing with Christine Spiteri (which we covered in Episode 113) and now it seems John Westacott has made another Channel 9 female news presenter unhappy.

This article from the Daily Telegraph details the rumours of goings on at Nine in Sydney with Majella Weimers, fill-in weather presenter, who apparently stormed out when told that her contract would not be renewed.

Of course, this led to the Telegraph quoting “one news staffer” saying something about John Westacott – that he “doesn’t like blondes”. Even though there was nothing in the preceding paragraphs to suggest Westacott had anything specifically to do with the incident.

The more I read about this, the more I think someone at the Tele has a bone to pick with Westacott and tries to get him to look bad in every article about Nine.

Really, give the man a chance to make himself look bad on his own. I’m sure he’s more than capable.

If you’re a Channel 9 staffer then don’t go running to Confidential every time your boss yells misogynistic epithets from the transmission tower. Do the honourable thing. Note down exactly what he said and hold on to your notes. Then, when you retire from the profession, publish it in a tell-all book.

Until then, keep your mouth shut. You’re making your network look bad, you’re making your colleagues look bad, and you’re not helping your own careers at all. On the weekend, go to the video store and rent Broadcast News. Then go home and watch it. Twice. Try to remember what being part of a news room is all about.*

And while I’m telling people what to do: Daily Telegraph, you can shut the hell up. No one really cares about the wars you’re trying to start. Do some proper work.

*Apparently it’s about faking your own tears to make a story better and then breaking Holly Hunter’s heart. Oh, and sweat.

The Herald Sun this week reported on Channel 9?s end of year line up, under the somewhat humorously banner: Nine?s Rating Charge. It referred to a mess of new Nine shows including the ridiculously over the top Damages, Burke?s Backyard Spring Special (I assume Nine are hoping Burke has somehow traversed the divide from old and past it to retro cool in his time away), Surprise, Surprise Gotcha (hohum, a celebrity prank show), The Singing Bee (karaoke) and a bunch of lifestyle rubbish including: Girl?s Of The Playboy Mansion (already screened on Pay TV), RFDS (about the Flying Doctors), The Gift (about organ donation), and Dirty Jobs (about crap jobs people do).

With the exception possibly of Damages that group has the freshness of week old garbage at best.

To borrow a bit of football parlance I think it?s about time Nine started ?tanking?. 2007 is over, start thinking about 2008. In the meantime, try some different ideas, blood some new players.

Here are some things they could try:

*Give shows more than one of two eps to find their audience. ER has disappeared from our screens already. It was always going to struggle up against Californication.

*Weeds is funnier and more irreverent than Californication and could easily be just as much a hit here. Nine could give it a proper run, showing an entire series or two, unedited, in a consistent timeslot with a bit of promotion.

*Why not use the HBO output deal to give Flight Of The Conchords a run? (Same rules apply as for Weeds) Or the new relationship drama Tell Me You Love Me.

I know none of these ideas will help Nine win the rating the rating but neither will this steaming pile of guff they are serving us.

EDIT Channel 9 are apparently going to screen series two of Weeds from Oct 1st at 10:30pm… Whether this means consistent, unedited and promoted screens remains to be seen.

Further to the “news” item that WIN would be showing Brady Bunch in the afternoon and why they would bother sending out a media release about it, a dedicated listener informed me of WIN boss Bruce Gordon’s current battle with PBL Media/Nine over content deals and pointed me to a Fairfax article from this morning:

“We’re out of contract and they keep threatening to turn us off,” Mr Gordon said. “We said, ‘Go ahead: take your programming off’, and we think it would be a lot of fun if they did. We can program this network. When I bought this network in 1979, there were no affiliation agreements.”

PBL Media, owner of the Nine Network, wants WIN to pay 40 per cent of its revenue in return for programming, up from the 32 per cent it pays under the current agreement, which officially expired on July 1.

Mr Gordon wants the fees reduced to reflect poor ratings, and to bring them into line with the 29 per cent of revenue that WIN’s main regional competitors, Prime and Southern Cross Broadcasting, pay their partners at Seven and Ten.

Apparently it is worthwhile to boast about putting on 35 year old repeats if it means you’re sticking it to the big boys.

WIN calls Nine’s bluff on program supply — The Age

Well, it looks like the money men aren’t afraid to sack some execs and make some real changes around channel 9.

The Nation has obviously been a surprise hit so they’re taking it out of the soft Tuesday night lineup and throwing it into the high profile Wednesday 10:30 slot. I wonder if Mick Molloy will be able to take the increased pressure.

On its last Tuesday night airing, The Nation pulled 548,000 viewers nationwide.

(Josh says: “Read the article from the Age.”)

Very interesting article about how Packer selling up his share in Nine will lead to the free to air networks finally taking on Foxtel as a whole.

Maybe TIVO won’t as doomed as we first thought.