Media Roundup: Seven goes dark in SA and NSW WIN locations, Pellegrino to return to run Domain, reviews are in for 10 News+, LaPaglia boned by 10, Zuckerberg launches (another) Meta AI division
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Television
Seven goes dark in regional SA and NSW
Viewers in South Australian regional areas of Mt Gambier and Loxton, along with the NSW region of Griffith, no longer have access to channels 7, 7mate, and 7two following Seven West Media’s decision not to renew its broadcast agreement with WIN. The signal switch-off is effective from today, 1 July 2025.
TV Blackbox's Kevin Perry reports that political leaders in the affected communities have voiced concern about the impact of the shutdown on regional access to major sporting events. Member for Barker Tony Pasin MP called on all parties to ensure that free-to-air broadcasts remain available in the Limestone Coast and Riverland, citing the importance of sporting events to regional communities.
Jonathan LaPaglia fired from Australian Survivor
Yesterday 10 confirmed speculation from the weekend that the upcoming season of Survivor: Australia V The World will be the last series hosted by Jonathan LaPaglia (JLP). He has served as host of the show since 10 revived the format locally in 2016.
LaPaglia issued comment later in the day via his Instagram account where he said he was blindsided by the news. He wrote: "I received a call from the Network thanking me for all my hard work and dedication to the show but for next season they are ‘going in a different direction’. Ratings had dipped a bit recently and they wanted to do something drastic to shake things up."
SMH reviews 10 News+
SMH's Neil McMahon took a look at 10's new evening public affairs show 10 News+. He noted that the line-up wasn't coherent, but that with a 20-minute investigation opening the show and a featured interview with the Prime Minister, it didn't provide much more room to move.
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In a summation, McMahon wrote: "On its own terms, this was a solid debut, anchored by two hosts in Hitchcock and Amelia Brace who bring serious TV news chops to the table. They are much more than autocue readers, and that’s a good thing for a credible TV news service to have up its sleeve."
10 News+ viewers online not so kind
Viewers, however, had some mean spirited comments to make regarding the new show. In a compilation of comments from users on social media platform X (formerly good as Twitter), News.com.au noted one viewer called it "a Temu ACA"
The real report card, we note at Mediaweek, is how it does in the ratings. We'll be watching.
Publishing
Jason Pellegrino set to return to run Domain
Former Domain chief Jason Pellegrino will return to run the real estate site. Pellegrino joined Domain in 2018 and ran it until last year. New Domain owner CoStar is also considering a rebrand of the company should its $3 billion bit to buy Domain and delist it from shareholders is successful.
Kylar Loussikian writes in the AFR that CoStar is seeking to position Domain as a stronger and preferable alternative to REA Group, giving real estate agents greater options in the market. The company acquired the homes.com.au brand in early June and will either "go to market with flanking brands to Domain or to make a big statement with a major rebrand of Domain”.
AI
Mark Zuckerberg announces ‘Superintelligence’ division in Meta.
The new Meta Superintelligence Labs will combine FAIR, Llama models, AI products, and a new model development lab. Former Scale CEO Alexandr Wang will lead the team as chief AI officer, and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman will lead the company’s work on AI products.
According to Meghan Bobrowsky at the Wall Street Journal, Zuckerberg has been on a hiring spree in recent months, personally reaching out to hundreds of top AI researchers in an effort to get his company out of an AI crisis. Meta released the latest versions of its Llama model in April to little fanfare, and later delayed the launch of another bigger version of the model.
Bobrowsky reports that Zuckerberg is racing to create cutting-edge artificial-intelligence technology that is smarter than humans and able to power a wave of innovation that he has envisioned for his company.
