The new Qantas A380 is called the Nancy-Bird Walton, as we saw on the news broadcasts last night as the plane arrived in Sydney. I wonder who that is. It can’t be the Australian aviation pioneer, Nancy Bird-Walton can it?

“Nancy Bird-Walton was the founder of the Australian Women Pilots’ Association, which was the starting block for a proud generation of female pilots, who now fly alongside men in Australia’s skies. Nancy Bird was born in Sydney, NSW in 1915.”

Interesting then that the Sydney Morning Herald at least got it right this morning in its report “Making history flying like dad“:

“The arrival of the plane — named the Nancy Bird-Walton, after Australia’s oldest aviatrix”

— Glenn Dyer

The National Rugby League, half owned by News Ltd, seems to be running dead on the Nine Network’s breaking of a major undertaking to broadcast all NRL finals live this year. The way News Ltd papers in Sydney and Brisbane have kept away from the issue contrasts with the sprays delivered against the Seven Network for delaying the telecasts of some of its Friday night AFL finals this year.

As part of its push to get Friday and Saturday night NRL semi-finals played in prime time to try and boost its TV ratings performance against Seven, Nine undertook to broadcast all semis live. It also agreed to bring the NRL Grand Final forward to a 5 pm start on Sunday week, instead of the usual 7.05pm start (which had been the case from 2001 to last year), but also got those prime time finals, and promised live coverage.

That meant the usual mix of day and night finals was abandoned for Nine’s benefit. There was no NRL played at all yesterday. The earlier broadcast of the Grand Final was to pre-empt a push from clubs and fans for the game to return to the traditional 3pm kick off, which did nothing for Nine’s ratings. But on Friday night Nine refused to show the Auckland Warriors-Easts Roosters game live from Auckland. It should have been broadcast at 6.30pm on Friday on the East Coast to be live from NZ, it started an hour later.

So far the NRL has muttered, but not bagged Nine. It should because Nine has breached undertakings it gave to get the semi-finals shifted to all Friday and Saturday nights.

— Glenn Dyer

Skilton: Riewoldt or Ablett — not sure which Bobby Skilton advised The Age that Nick Riewoldt is his pick for the Brownlow tonight… and advised the Herald Sun that it’s got to be Gary Ablett.

Glenn Milne — professional tosser. Milne clearly doesn’t know what the hell he does or why he does it. From story “Rudd’s control issues“:

Beazley, a former defence minister and now defence consultant with the firm Ernst & Young, spoke at a *Chatham House rules *Australian Defence Industry Network seminar in Canberra at the end of last month. What he said shocked many in the audience, and if Rudd has anything but a tin political ear it ought also to send some shock waves through the federal Government.

The “Chatham House Rule” (singular!) actually is:

When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.

— Crikey reader Scot Mcphee

Profits fall for Seven. Australian broadcaster Seven Network Ltd said on Monday that profit before tax in 2008 was likely to be about 40-50 percent below the previous year, due to weak advertising revenue. — Reuters & Bloomberg

The Set Top box revolution. In an attempt to save costs and make the industry’s proposed Freeview platform more compelling, Australia’s commercial free-to-air TV networks are considering a groundbreaking move to share programming on the digital channels they will launch next year. — The Australian

Kath and Kim make it big in the US… well, maybe America’s version of iconic Australian TV sitcom, Kath and Kim may not be the disaster naysayers (and some TV analysts) were predicting. The esteemed Washington Post has named Kath and Kim as its “most promising” new show of the new season. “Call it adventurous or call it desperate, but networks are looking with greater frequency beyond our own sudsy shores for series to remake or adapt,” wrote Post columnist Tom Shales today. — News.com

Saab blasted for false Green advertising Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chief Graeme Samuel said he would make sure the law caught up with companies “that give an overall impression that their product is environmentally friendly when it isn’t.” He named-‘n-shamed US-based General Motors for claiming its Saab cars sold in Australia were environmentally friendly. “Every Saab is green,” the advertising ran, “with carbon emissions neutral across the entire Saab range.” — Motoring

New media formats figure in US Presidential run-off Rather than the YouTube election, the 2008 Obama-McCain race is becoming the text-messaging and email election. First, Barack Obama text-messaged the announcement of his choice of vice-presidential running mate to several hundred thousand of his most intimate friends. Then he came out with a television advertisement suggesting that John McCain’s inability to send an email made him unfit to be the next president. And now Governor Sarah Palin, McCain’s iconoclastic, gun-toting Alaskan wild- card pick, may have sent too many emails for her own good. — The Independent

Media stimulates economic movement. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently published an article on “How Economic News Moves Markets“:

Investigating how the issuance of new economic data influences asset prices in the stock, bond and foreign exchange markets, authors Leonardo Bartolini, Linda Goldberg and Adam Sacarny conclude that only a few announcements—the nonfarm payroll numbers, the GDP advance release and a private sector manufacturing report—have significant and persistent effects. Most of the other data releases examined, the authors find, generate only transitory or erratic responses. — Depth Reporting