Show notes
Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade. Along with revealing the lineup for the Brisbane edition of our Compass event, we today feature an in-depth interview with Mark Frain, CEO of Foxtel Media, recorded around last week’s Upfront event. Plus, a further dip in the Unmade Index.If you’ve been thinking about upgrading to an Unmade membership, this is the perfect time. Your membership includes:* A complimentary ticket to all of Unmade’s events, including Unlock (October 31), Compass (across November), HumAIn (Q2 2025) and REmade (Q3 2025);* Members-only content; and all of our paywalled archives;* Your own copy of Media Unmade. Budget Direct Chief Growth Officer, Nine MD, Publicis strategy chief and comms veteran to bring Compass to Brisbane Cat McGinn writes:We can today reveal the leadership panel for the Brisbane Compass event, Unmade’s annual industry meet-up, this year taking place in six states. The panel features Jonathan Kerr, Chief Growth Officer of Budget Direct; Michael Crutcher, PR professional and former editor of the Brisbane Courier Mail; Simon Murphy, chief strategy officer for Publicis; and Kylie Blucher, managing director of Nine Queensland & Northern NSW.The panel will be moderated by Unmade’s Tim Burrowes and the discussion will later be featured as an Unmade podcast.Unmade’s paying members are entitled to a complimentary place at Compass, and tickets are on sale here.Unmade’s Compass roadshow takes place across six states.* Wednesday November 6 - Hobart, The Hope and Anchor;* Tuesday November 12 - Brisbane, The Prince Consort;* Wednesday November 13 - Sydney, The Sporting Globe;* Monday November 18 - Perth, The Globe;* Tuesday November 19 - Adelaide, Elephant British Pub;* Wednesday November 20 - Melbourne, The Garden State Hotel.‘We agitated for change and we didn’t get the answers we were looking for’: Why Mark Frain created the VFCFrom his opening words on stage at last week’s Foxtel Media Upfront event, it was clear that boss Mark Frain hasn’t made peace with the decision made by Seven, Nine and Ten to refuse him a place at the ownership table for measurement system OzTAM.Instead, he has gone it alone, with Foxtel building its own measurement system powered by Kantar, and inviting a coalition of streamers to join them in the Video Future Collective.Frain sees it as the free-to-air networks’ loss: “It’s been cathartic” he tells Unmade’s Tim Burrowes. “We did request to become officially part of OzTAM from a shareholding perspective. We also discussed the opportunity to provide our data to that business where we thought we could enrich and improve the service. And unfortunately, the shareholders said no. So from there, that forced us down a different direction.”The biggest downside of the schism is that for media agencies and brands they now have a second measurement system to contend with. Frain is unapologetic. “Any change causes some unrest”.This new direction includes the creation of a coalition of streamers under the banner of the Video Futures Collective, chaired by Foxtel’s Toby Dewar. Alongside Foxtel, the VFC membership now consists of Amazon Advertising, Disney Advertising, Samsung Ads, SBS On Demand, Vevo and YouTube. Frain says, pointedly, “Everyone’s got an equal share of voice.”* Declaration of interest: Foxtel provided my travel and accommodation for the upfront event, and they’ve been advertising with us this week. The podcast interview was not part of any commercial arrangement.Unmade Index continues downwards driftTim Burrowes writes:The Unmade Index’s slow stall has stretched into a week after losing another 0.74% yesterday. That followed a drop of 0.73% on Tuesday. The Unmade Index, which tracks Australia’s listed media and marketing companies has been losing ground since last Tuesday. It closed on 444.7 points last night.Yesterday saw Vinyl Group grow by 4.6% to a market capitalisation of $111m, just behind Southern Cross Austereo’s $112m.Ooh Media’s slide also continued, losing 2.5% yesterday to land at $641m. The company has lost nearly 9% over the last month.Today’s podcast was edited by Abe’s Audio. We’ll be back with more tomorrowHave a great day.Toodlepip…Tim BurrowesPublisher - [email protected] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit unmade.substack.com