MEAA warns of “aggressive agenda of cuts to current conditions” at Fairfax. Fijian newspaper execs cleared of sedition. The Obamas strike a new deal with Netflix. Plus, other media tidbits from the day. 

Fairfax’s “aggressive” EBA proposal. In a Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance bulletin sent to members, the journalists’ union says Fairfax Media’s initial enterprise bargaining agreement proposal is “an aggressive agenda of cuts to current conditions”. The proposal includes no guaranteed pay increases and cuts to automatic progression, changes to redundancy allowances (capping at 52 weeks for staff with 13 or fewer years of service), and changes to the pay scale and casual work rates.

Fairfax tried to cut automatic pay progression in the 2014 round of EBA negotiations — something staff won out on by accepting a smaller-than-inflation guaranteed payrise of 2%. Management was also proposing to cut redundancy provisions in those negotiations.

Fiji Times execs cleared. Fiji’s High Court has cleared three of the Fiji Times’ executives on sedition charges over a letter published in indigenous language publication Nai Lalakai. 

Fiji Times publisher Hank Arts, editor-in-chief Fred Wesley and Nai Lalakai editor Anare Ravula were charged, along with the man who wrote the letter, Josaia Waqabaca. The letter accused Muslims of committing historic crimes.

In a statement to the Fiji Times after the not guilty verdict, Arts said:

It has been a very humbling experience for me and in terms of editorial matters it would go on as usual from tomorrow (today) and we will continue to do, share, balance and offer a level platform for people to voice their concerns and we will continue to be there to raise issues of concern and be there for the people.

Missing deadline. At 7.03pm yesterday, Santos lodged a statement on the ASX website announcing it had rejected the $14.5 billion takeover from the US private equity based Harbour Energy. The story took more than an hour to make it to the websites of The Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Financial Review. Readers of both Fairfax papers this morning wouldn’t have found the story in their pages (rival The Australian managed to get the late story onto page 17, its lead business page).

It’s a major business news story, especially when it was the third bid rejected yesterday. Earlier in the day, private hospital operator, Healthscope rejected $4 billion plus takeover bids from an Australian and Canadian private equity groups. 

Fairfax Media are said to have deadlines for most of the papers of about 6pm (a bit later for the front of the paper and parts of sport for the SMH and Age). The fact that they missed this important story shows how inflexible the production processes for both papers have become. Yes, the websites are supposed to pick up stories that miss the print editions, but this was an important one, so close to deadline. The Australian obviously has later deadlines, or more production flexibility. — Glenn Dyer

Obamas on demand. Netflix has announced a deal with Barack and Michelle Obama for the former US president and first lady to produce “a diverse mix of content, including the potential for scripted series, unscripted series, docu-series, documentaries and features,” a statement from Netflix said. CNN reports the Obamas would act as both moderators/hosts and producers.

Fox the loser in US ratings. Final ratings figures for the 2017-18 US free-to-air TV season reveal that the Murdoch family’s Fox Network was the big loser, while NBC and CBS claimed top spots in the 18-49 and total people demographics respectively). NBC’s share and audience size was boosted by the Super Bowl in February and the Winter Olympics almost straight after.

That disguised to an extent the big story in the shape of more falls in audience shares and numbers in the 2017-18 TV season. Fox especially saw big falls in total people (a loss of 16%) and in 18-49s where its share fell more than 20%.

The most watched regular programs in 2017-18 were (in total viewers): The Big Bang Theory (CBS) on 18.6 million viewers versus Sunday Night Football (NBC) on 18.3 million. Roseanne (ABC) pulled in 17.8 million viewers, and This Is Us (NBC) wasn’t far behind on 17.4 million. CBS’ NCIS and Young Sheldon rank next, with 16.7 million viewers and 16.3 million, respectively. The Super Bowl had the biggest TV audience again, but its audience of 103.4 million was down 10% from the all time peak of 114.4 million in 2015 and was the lowest in nine years, which sums up the decline in viewing numbers across the entire sector. — Glenn Dyer

Front page of the day.

Glenn Dyer’s TV Ratings. Ten’s night, even though Seven won total people and the main channels. But Ten dominated the major demos. Nine was left right out with a weak line up that begs the question — has it run out of money and ideas for new programs?

You can ask the same question about its line up in prime time tonight — especially with a repeat of Talkin’ About Your Generation slotted for a 9.50pm start after the stale Britain’s Got Talent. Last night was the second solid night in a row for Ten. Shark Tank (837,000 nationally) also helped but the star was Masterchef Australia (1.19 million nationally) which easily beat Seven’s House Rules (1.05 million). Masterchef was the most watched non-news program last night, Interview with Andrew Denton on Seven got 749,000. 

Seven’s night in the regions with the 6pm News on top again with 609,000 viewers, followed by Seven News/Today Tonight with 509,000. Then Home and Away with 422,000, House Rules with 416,000 and the 5.30pm part of The Chase Australia with 389,000. Read the rest at the Crikey website.