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Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker

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Speaker 1: every morning to hear the latest episode. Just say play

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Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From the Australian, here's what's

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Speaker 1: on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Thursday, August fifteenth.

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Speaker 1: There's been a fifty percent rise in episodes of mental

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Speaker 1: ill health among young people. It's part of a huge

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Speaker 1: study led by Australian psychiatrists and they say the economy

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Speaker 1: and technological change are contributing to distress. Psychedelic mushrooms as

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Speaker 1: a possible treatment for cluster headaches. That's a new clinical

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Speaker 1: trial kicking off in Sydney using the drug silas cyburn

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Speaker 1: to treat the debilitating condition. That story is live now

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Speaker 1: at the Australian dot Com dot You a truly shocking

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Speaker 1: set of numbers for seven West Media, the owners of

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Speaker 1: Network seven. So is the clock ticking for commercial television

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Speaker 1: in Australia. That's today on the front on commercial TV.

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Speaker 1: There's a major drama going on, like my fears and

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Speaker 1: my doubts.

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Speaker 2: I don't feel comfortable just spilling all my emotions.

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Speaker 1: I'm not coming in for the drama. I'm just coming

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Speaker 1: in for a bit of jolly farm, bit of light.

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Speaker 2: Hardeners changes the whole concept of what my shower screen

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Speaker 2: looks like.

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Speaker 1: Well, there's always a major drama going on, but this

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Speaker 1: one relates to the very existence of the TV networks.

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Speaker 1: The media sector was stunned on Wednesday when seven West

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Speaker 1: Media released its annual results.

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Speaker 2: Net profit before taxes is down sixty nine. Group revenue

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Speaker 2: overall has slipped five percent. There's not much silver in

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Speaker 2: any of the linings at seven.

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Speaker 1: That's The Australian's Media editor James Madden, fresh from an

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Speaker 1: interview with Seven's boss, who was keen to assure James

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Speaker 1: he's not panicking you.

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Speaker 2: CEO Jeff Howard, who's been in the job since April,

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Speaker 2: so just over four months, was definitely sought to put

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Speaker 2: a positive spin on these numbers, which by any measure

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Speaker 2: are shocking.

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Speaker 1: Seven still made forty five million dollars in profit for

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Speaker 1: the year to June thirty, but still a sixty nine

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Speaker 1: percent profit slump.

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Speaker 2: So his characterization of the results as disappointing was a

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Speaker 2: soft euphemism, if ever there was one.

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Speaker 1: Some of it can be explained by restructuring costs, and

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Speaker 1: Seven's news division is going through a giant cultural overhaul

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Speaker 1: after some very unpleasant headlines. But the big worry for

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Speaker 1: seven is a problem that's ravelaging commercial media right now.

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Speaker 1: Ads are down, way down. The advent of streaming services,

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Speaker 1: which generally get their revenue from subscription fees rather than sponsors,

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Speaker 1: means you can enjoy a full marathon binge without having

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Speaker 1: to watch a single ad. If you watched any of

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Speaker 1: the Olympics on linear TV, you might have encountered ads

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Speaker 1: for the first time in a while, and you'll have

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Speaker 1: noticed they were on high rotation five decades Australian furniture

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Speaker 1: de sign I've got a ton of job lads from

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Speaker 1: high pages. Thank yo with ay. And those ads are

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Speaker 1: part of a slightly more optimistic story for nine. Seven's

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Speaker 1: major commercial rival, which will report its annual numbers on

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Speaker 1: August twenty eight, nine is already talking a big game,

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Speaker 1: reporting it's generated over one hundred and forty million dollars

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Speaker 1: in revenue from what is believed to be a one

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Speaker 1: hundred and twenty million dollar investment in the Olympics. But

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Speaker 1: things look grim at ten. In May, they announced the

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Speaker 1: masked Singer and the Bachelor would be rested, a show

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Speaker 1: being rested is a bit like when a family pet

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Speaker 1: goes to live on the farm. Life without the bachelor,

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Speaker 1: Where will we get the next generation of influences and

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Speaker 1: relationship role models. I love how Rich makes me feel,

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Speaker 1: you know, he makes me feel alive and safe and

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Speaker 1: he just makes me so happy. At least we still

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Speaker 1: have married at first sight. Ten is the third player

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Speaker 1: in Australian media, and it's a tiny fragment of its

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Speaker 1: global parent company, Paramount, which has just been sold from

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Speaker 1: one family of American billionaires to another. They of course

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Speaker 1: want more profit. That means reducing costs in the range

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Speaker 1: of three billion dollars across global operations. How will that

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Speaker 1: play out for Ten, Well, we'll have to wait and see.

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Speaker 1: For now, all eyes are on seven. Seven West Media

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Speaker 1: is part of a bigger organization, Seven Group, which does

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Speaker 1: a whole lot of other things, particularly in mining. They're

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Speaker 1: owned ultimately by the billionaire Stokes family, Kerry Stokes and

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Speaker 1: his son Ryan. How much do you think they're concerned

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Speaker 1: about one year's shocking results, as you say from seven

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Speaker 1: West Media.

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Speaker 2: Well, you'd have to assume there is significant concern about

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Speaker 2: this arm of the business. There's long been speculation about

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Speaker 2: the future of seven West Media as part of the group,

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Speaker 2: as many analysts see it as the least valuable arm

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Speaker 2: of the business. However, it's understood that Kerry Stokes is

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Speaker 2: very fond of heading up a media company, so as

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Speaker 2: to whether there will be any push on to offload

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Speaker 2: it in the short term is unlikely.

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Speaker 1: Stokes seems to have a high tolerance for massive outlaighs.

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Speaker 1: He's been financially backing Ben Roberts Smith, the Victoria Cross

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Speaker 1: winner who's denied being a war criminal in his defamation

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Speaker 1: trial against nine.

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Speaker 2: It is a devastating blow for the decorated former soldier

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Speaker 2: after one of the biggest and most expensive court battles

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Speaker 2: in Australian history.

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Speaker 1: Robert Smith is appealing, which means that tab will just

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Speaker 1: continue to grow for Kerry Stokes. When James spoke to

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Speaker 1: Jeff Howard on Wednesday, he was very keen to talk

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Speaker 1: about the future of linear TV. That is old fashioned

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Speaker 1: Channel seven on your television set rather than its streaming

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Speaker 1: service which they call BVOD b VOD or broadcast video

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Speaker 1: on demand.

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Speaker 2: Media executives are quite defensive about the future of linear TV.

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Speaker 2: They continue to talk it up because the linear arm

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Speaker 2: of the business still remains at the core of these

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Speaker 2: television networks.

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Speaker 1: So presumably one of the reasons they love linear TV

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Speaker 1: is that it's more difficult to avoid the ads, right,

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Speaker 1: is that what it's about.

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Speaker 2: That's a large part of it. Claire, However, it would

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Speaker 2: seem that the advertisers are catching up and want more

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Speaker 2: bang for their buck. Advertisers are waking up to the

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Speaker 2: fact that audiences, the key demographics, have largely moved to

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Speaker 2: digital and have left linear TV behind.

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Speaker 1: All media companies are suffering a downturn in advertising right now,

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Speaker 1: and in part they're blaming giant tech platforms which have

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Speaker 1: scooped up vast volumes of ad revenue in recent years.

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Speaker 1: That's part of the reason companies like our parent News

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Speaker 1: Corp Australia want the government to force tech giants like

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Speaker 1: Meta to negotiate fair payments to media companies for the

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Speaker 1: news they use on their platforms.

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Speaker 2: Mister Howard, like a raft of other media CEOs in Australia,

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Speaker 2: has been very vocal that the time to is now.

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Speaker 2: He's not the only one saying it, but he did

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Speaker 2: warn that if nothing is done in the very near future,

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Speaker 2: we'll all be sitting around in ten to twenty years

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Speaker 2: time saying well, we wish we'd acted when we could.

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Speaker 1: Earlier in the New Zealanders saw their only commercial TV

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Speaker 1: news service die. Could the same thing happen in Australia?

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Speaker 1: That's next on the front. The Australian has the best

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Speaker 1: coverage of media every day from James and his team.

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Speaker 1: Check it out at the Australian dot com dot au

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Speaker 1: and we'll be back after this break. Now, more than ever,

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Speaker 1: you need news you can trust. Verse is three new Es.

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Speaker 1: This is the story of a scrappy TV station that

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Speaker 1: spent twenty five years trying to compete with a powerful

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Speaker 1: government owned broadcaster and ended up on its knees. We

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Speaker 1: have loved making the news. Thank you so much for watching,

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Speaker 1: for having us in your homes. Come ony. TV three

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Speaker 1: New Zealand's version of Network seven is a shell of

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Speaker 1: its former self. Earlier this year, three's American owners, Warner

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Speaker 1: Brothers Discovery axed three's news in a bid to save

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Speaker 1: the whole station from a catastrophic AD revenue decline. There

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Speaker 1: was no triumphalism from TVNZ three's rival when they reported

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Speaker 1: the demise of their competitor. It's a sad day for

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Speaker 1: democracy and journalism in New Zealand. Aunt Kiwi's nice. Now

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Speaker 1: three's programming is jammed with American and British shows. Once

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Speaker 1: the news was dead, the locally produced content was terminal,

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Speaker 1: the block was act four couples are about to move

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Speaker 1: into four rundown houses on Auckland's north shore, and so

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Speaker 1: was married at first sight New Zealand.

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Speaker 2: I don't know where to go from here because I've

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Speaker 2: worn my heart my sleeve.

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Speaker 1: Hundreds of production jobs. Gone three has reintroduced a dramatically

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Speaker 1: scaled down news service. But can we journos fear that

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Speaker 1: won't last long? I mean, it's almost unfathomable that Australia

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Speaker 1: could be left without commercial TV. But how serious is

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Speaker 1: the problem here? Is that something that's actually potentially on

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Speaker 1: the horizon, that one or more of our commercial networks

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Speaker 1: could fault.

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Speaker 2: It's certainly a possibility, Claire. There's a lot of talk

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Speaker 2: that Network ten might not survive well into the future,

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Speaker 2: leaving us with just nine and seven. The problem, as

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Speaker 2: you say in New Zealand, or the consequence of the

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Speaker 2: loss of a commercial TV presence, is that consumers, viewers

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Speaker 2: and readers are inevitably forced to go elsewhere for them news,

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Speaker 2: and the news available on social media platforms isn't subject

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Speaker 2: to the same rigor as professional journalism, and thus misinformation

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Speaker 2: and fake news, if you want to call it, that thrives.

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Speaker 1: If Three's vestigial news service fails, New Zealand's broadcast media

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Speaker 1: will be dominated by Radio New Zealand and TV and ZED,

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Speaker 1: both state owned.

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Speaker 2: One of the most common mantras in journalism is the

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Speaker 2: need for a diversity of views, and if the only

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Speaker 2: publicly aired view in a country is coming from a

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Speaker 2: state owned media organization, it's far from ideal. I think

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Speaker 2: it's a case of you don't know what you've got

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Speaker 2: till it's gone. On this front. Once these organizations fold

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Speaker 2: or disappear or contract, it's going to be very hard

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Speaker 2: to turn it around and return to the way things

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Speaker 2: once were.

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Speaker 1: James Madden is The Australian's Media it out. Thanks for

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Speaker 1: joining us on the front. We'll be back right here tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, join our subscribers at the Australian dot

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Speaker 1: com dot au