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Logies ends press embargos to avoid future leaks

The Australian says "sorry" and Bauer Media says no more Logies embargos are going to be given out.

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logies 13Bauer Media has ruled out any future Logies embargos for media, to avoid any more leaks.

It follows The Australian publishing Asher Keddie as the Gold Logie winner online ahead of the broadcast. It was the second year in a row that News Limited published the Gold winner.

For many years TV Week has issued results to newspapers under embargo to allow them to meet print deadlines. But with the rise of the internet and the advent of Twitter, the spoiling has been prolific.

Clive Mathieson, Editor The Australian said, “As in previous years, The Australian received an embargoed copy of the Logies winners to allow it to cover the event in all editions of Monday’s newspaper. We were aware that any article could not be published online before the end of the televised ceremony. But due to an error by production staff in Sydney, the article containing the winners’ names was accidentally published on our website before the end of the live ceremony. The Australian deeply regrets the error and offers its apologies to the organisers of the Logies.”

Jayne Ferguson, Publisher, Weekly titles, Bauer Media Group said, “TV WEEK are extremely disappointed in the leak of the Gold Logie winner, particularly after News Ltd guaranteed a strict process would be followed to ensure a repeat of last year’s breach of embargo was not made. In light of this, moving forward, all media outlets will find out who all TV WEEK Logie Award winners are in line with the telecast.”

Last week TV Tonight quizzed organisers about what steps had been taken to avoid another leak, but there were no changes from 2012.

There have been calls within the media this week for the Logies to deliver a Live to Air broadcast next year, in line with the Oscars, Grammys, Emmys, BAFTAs and Tony Awards.

21 Responses

  1. Smit0847 – the US live shows incorporate the ad breaks into the ceremony. If the show is broadcast live for three hours, then that’s how long the audience is sitting there with the cameras rolling. Each commercial break is timed to the second and if it’s a three-minute break, that’s how long the stage/screens will be empty in the auditorium with nothing happening. It’s the same with the talk shows (Letterman, Ellen etc.) – they’re filmed in “real time” (for broadcast later), and you actually have to sit there waiting for X number of minutes during the commercial breaks. The stage manager counts the on-stage cast in from each commercial break so that they know when they’re “on air” again.

  2. @Pertinax.. it matters because it’s the second time the winner was known online well before it was announced at the event. At least one of the Gold nominees already knew that they had not won it. Whatever your view of the Logies, that’s pretty poor form by News Ltd don’t you think?

    I’m glad there’ll be no early releases. The media can wait like everyone else. As for showing the Logies live.. definitely has to be. Start the presentation at 8pm, with the Red Carpet highlights on GO! or GEM earlier. With everyone on digital next year anyway, it shouldn’t matter what channel the Red Carpet’s on.

  3. Thanks David. I think there’s no harm in having the Red Carpet on a delayed broadcast then showing the ceremony live and still being able to have The Voice in there too.

    The way I would do it:
    6:30 – 7:30 – The Voice premiere (60 minute teaser episode of 5 amazing contestants to reel viewers in, with a proper 90/120 minute version the following night)
    7:30 – 8:00 -Red Carpet on delay (the actual Red Carpet could occur from 5 – 6ish)
    8:00 – 10:30 – Live ceremony (2 hour actual ceremony stretched to 2.5 hours with ads).

    The problem would be the ad breaks during the ceremony broadcast – to keep the ceremony 100% live they would have to pause for 3.5 minutes every 10/15 minutes or so. David, does the actual ceremony constantly have breaks to allow guests to mingle, drink, toilet etc (I assume they have a banquet dinner between red carpet finishing and ceremony starting) or does the actual ceremony race through from start to finish non-stop?

    How do they do it for the overseas ceremonies they screen live? Do they stop the ceremony for the ad breaks or does it start live but finish 30/60 mins behind because the networks constantly pause for ads?

  4. So the delay is around an hour at the moment – maybe an hour and a half if they started the actual ceremony at 7:15pm. David – how much longer does the current deal between Nine and TV Week run? Bauer will undoubtedly be putting pressure on Nine for a live broadcast, especially given the low ratings for the end of the ceremony. Ten would probably jump at the chance to broadcast the ceremony.

  5. Ch 9 will always want to put a strong lead-in eg The Voice before the Logies. They know it would get smashed in the ratings if it was their only show of the night. Therefore the only hope of it being shown live was if the organisers agreed to start the show at 8pmish.

  6. So are they going to do strip search everyone at the ceremony and confiscate their phones?

    What does it matter if the Australian published the winner before the broadcast? By the time the winner was announced on TV everyone had already gone to bed because it was after midnight!

  7. David, what time does the ceremony and Red Carpet Actually start? Is it that early that it would be impossible to broadcast it live or start the ceremony slightly later?

  8. When I watch the logies I do so without the need to check updates of twitter or the newspapers so when Asher was announced as the gold winner it was a pleasant surprise… Simple

  9. @TVTALK – this isn’t a step fwd at all. People relying on print publications (or their on-line versions) will now find out the name of the Gold Logie winner later than currently. People watching the broadcast will still find out a couple of hours after the envelope is actually opened. What we need is for the event to be shown live.

    @seriouslysquare – that might be a simple sol’n to some issues but it won’t work due to restrictions on when programs rated M and MA can be shown.

    The networks also won’t go for it because they want to maximise audiences for their big programs – they won’t want to put The Voice out at 5pm in WA (4pm in summer).

    That being said, a case could prob be made for aligning SA with the east coast, similar to what they do for two adjacent timezones in the US.

  10. the embargos never made sense to me, surely it has always been better for the newspapers to just write 6 articles, one for each nominee then publish the winners one. they can still be organised and there is no risk of a leak, atleast not a credible one, ‘poh wins masterchef’ anyone.

    1. Mr J. They can’t publish the winner in a Monday morning paper regardless of who it is without an embargo release. That’s why they existed. But Bauer has now decreed it is not worth the risk. However unless it goes Live guests will tweet the winner ahead of the broadcast anyway, so we are back to square one. Bauer has to work with Nine to achieve a Live broadcast, but that will be difficult when they want The Voice to launch same night. We’re really talking about competing interests here.

  12. It surprises me that the free to air channels don’t just run there programming at eastern standard time. I think that maybe tv schedules need an update and that prime time undergoes a few changes.

    prime time in the eastern 7pm till midnight, Central 630pm till 1130pm and western 5pm till 9pm.

    and why not have timeshift channels available for Western viewers.

  13. The Logies has so much to learn from the way that The Wakeley’s are run, this is that they it needs to be more cut and dry and broadcast live, with no stupid Logies minutes and no red carpet.

  16. David – I’m not sure what you mean. Do you mean that media outlets will no longer receive the results in advance under embargo? Or simply that the organisers will not put an embargo on the release, but still provide them in advance?

  17. technology is available nowadays to broadcast live. common sense would say broadcast live but i havent seen much common sense lately from any network

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