Daniel James

And so for the reasonable Australian who sees Tommy Robinson as a far-right provocateur that he is, I suspect Nine come out of this...

okay having dealt relatively swiftly, noting that, you know, this has been a six-month saga.

This has been a long saga for the Nine Network, for sure.

And, Darnie, what do you think all this says about the current media landscape?

Because even five years ago, perhaps even two years ago, the idea of a top pay presenter of a prestige network like Nine putting that gig in jeopardy to pursue a podcast career like this would have been unthinkable.

Not that there's anything wrong with podcasting, by the way.

I just want to...

Just to make that clear.

And long may the 7am podcast live.

I think that like we joke, but I think that is at the core of where we're at here is for commercial networks, the gravy train is starting to end.

For consumers, we know that, and the most recent version of the Digital News Report came out recently by the University of Canberra, we know that individuals, you and me punters, trust personalities much more these days than they do institutions.

And they're choosing and picking the personalities that they trust.

And so there is money to be made.

There is media success to be had in going independent.

We've seen this for a little while.

Carl is by no means the first big Australian media personality to go independent.

Joe Aston left the Financial Review and started his own publication.

It appears to be going very well for him.

And everyone has their own podcast now, myself included, that is separate to their day jobs.

And increasingly, companies are saying yes to that and approving that because they recognize that they can have their cake and eat it too.