news articles 11 march 2005

[Inside Australian Idol]

Only 100 tickets left
Friday, 11 March 2005

THOSE people intending to buy a ticket for the big Chanel Cole Live Concert for Charity over Easter had better hurry as there are only 100 left.

The tickets are available from Fletcher's Fotographics in Auckland Street at $18 and children must be over 12 years old to attend.

Chanel is coming back to Bega to perform on Sunday, March 27 at the Bega RSL Club to raise money for the Bega District Hospital auxiliary to buy much needed equipment including a Medela phototherapy lamp for jaundiced newborn babies and intubation equipment for emergency.

Along with Chanel and her band, "The Whirled", other performances will be made by fellow Australian Idol finalist, Daniel Bell, and locals Chelsea Beadman, Peter Wild and Hendrik De Vries.

In addition to the concert, photographic work by Chanel, and other local photographers, will be on display in an exhibition at the Bega Town Hall foyer on Saturday, March 26.


bega.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=local&category=entertainment&story_id=377878&y=2005&m=3

[Inside Australian Idol]

Market tuning in to different beat
By Patrick Donovan
Music writer
March 11, 2005

Music sales continued to fall in Australia in 2004 despite a huge year for Australian artists such as Jet, Shannon Noll, Pete Murray and the John Butler Trio, who between them had four of the five top-selling albums.

Recorded music sales - CD, vinyl and cassette albums and singles as well as DVDs - fell by 3.8 per cent to 63.1 million units, or $607 million.

CD album sales fell by 4.75 per cent to 48.2 million units or $510 million, while the CD singles market decreased by 1.89 per cent.

Lower wholesale prices led to an overall decrease in value of 6.45 per cent for the market.

This is despite Australian albums in the Australian Record Industry Association's top 100 albums chart such as Jet's Get Born, Murray's Feeler, Noll's That's What I'm Talking About and Butler's Sunrise Over Sea soaring by a combined 32 per cent.

Australian singles made up 24 per cent of total chart CD sales, with 24 separate entries on the ARIA end-of-year charts, up from 17 in 2003.

Despite a decline in the rate of growth and overall value, music DVD sales increased 6.5 per cent. Vinyl (down 29 per cent to 30,200 units) and cassettes (down 44 per cent to 193,000) continued to be bludgeoned by new digital technology such as MP3 players.

ARIA attributes the sluggish market to the increasingly competitive retail environment and continuing growth of digital music carriers, advanced mobile telephones and "non-music" DVDs.

The significant growth of high-speed (broadband) internet access in Australia, which allows more efficient but illegal downloading of music, was also a factor.

Despite the worrying figures, ARIA remained upbeat about the future.

"In 2004, there was a 10-fold increase in the global market for legitimate digital music downloads - a trend that the industry anticipates will start to be replicated locally during 2005," said ARIA chief executive Stephen Peach.

"Whilst the online services currently operating in Australia have yet to break through in the same way that they have overseas, the industry is encouraged by the overseas results during 2004 and looks forward to similar success locally during 2005."

Mr Peach also predicted that the increase of 3G mobile networks in Australia would encourage more legal downloads.

"The industry's continued commitment to the ongoing fight against online and offline piracy demonstrates that it is determined to create and entrench an environment where legitimate download services and the physical recorded music market can grow and prosper," he said.


www.theage.com.au/news/Music/Market-tuning-in-to-different-beat/2005/03/10/1110417615278.html

[Inside Australian Idol]

Fremantle profits rise, looks to kids

FremantleMedia, which produced nearly 8,000 hours of TV last year, has seen reported earnings soar by nearly 50%, on the back of new US and German productions and four Asian Idols commissions.

The RTL division, which encompasses production via the FremantleMedia, Grundy, UFA, TalkbackThames and Blue Circle labels, plus licensing and distribution, saw 2004 revenues up by 5.7% to €866m, while underlying EBITA jumped 18.8% to €101m and reported EBITA went from €68m in 2003 to €101m in 2004.

On top of 30 local productions of Idols, including four new commissions in Asia in 2004 (India, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia), RTL's financials today put the growth down to roll-out of other reality formats like The Apprentice (with 16 local productions), How Clean is Your House (Lifetime US) and X Factor (Ten Network).

Outside reality, 2004 also saw FremantleMedia grow its drama business with the launch of four new series in Germany, Croatia and South Africa. The success of Invento-created telenovela Finding Rodrigo in Columbia, led to the launch of Germany's first locally produced telenovela Bianca on ZDF.

In the licensing arena, FremantleMedia "enjoyed its best ever year", said the firm. This saw gameshow Family Feud (aka Family Fortunes) roll on to mobile platforms, as did Baywatch, The Price Is Right, The X factor (via Hutchinson’s 3 network) and Play Your Cards Right.

In other news, the company today said that it was expanding into the kids reality genre with the acquisition of third-party kids property Planet Cook. The company did the deal with UK prodco Platinum Films, which makes the cookery adventure show for the BBC.

The FremantleMedia deal, which covers production, distribution, licensing and merchandise rights, excludes the UK and Germany, where Platinum and M4E have secured a deal with ZDF for a 26-part local production of the show.


www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=74&article=23875