New Premium Content Alliance debuts

Michael Miller with Kim Portrate

Two Australian media associations will join forces later this year on a new alliance aimed at promoting the country’s premium content media across channels.

The Premium Content Alliance will see TV industry body group, ThinkTV, come together with news media industry body, NewsMediaWorks, operating under the new title, ThinkNewsBrands, along with third entity, ThinkPremiumDigital, to promote the power of premium content production. The alliance is being supported by a number of founding stakeholders from across the media landscape, including Foxtel Group, Network 10, News Corp Australia, Nine and Seven West Media.

Chairing the Premium Content Alliance is News Corp Australasia’s Michael Miller, while inaugural CEO is ThinkTV’s chief, Kim Portrate.  NewsWorkMedia CEO, Peter Miller, will take up a senior strategy role, and inaugural board members come from across stakeholder leadership ranks.

Miller said the ambition is to inform, inspire and educate advertisers and their agency partners about the value premium media delivers to brands. It’s also a nod to the way media organisations are increasingly operating across the spectrum of media channels, from broadcast and TV to radio, news media and magazines.

“Media companies today are multimedia businesses, and Australian advertisers are seeking media partnerships that provide holistic market solutions,” Miller stated. “This new industry alliance will provide advertisers, agencies and marketers with clear evidence of how best to use media combinations for their product or service, in a varied range of trusted media environments.”

Portrate said the alliance is about protecting something all Australians hold dear: Professional produced content, whatever the channel.

“Ensuring the future sustainability of these treasured assets – in light of the business practices of global digital platforms – is critical today, tomorrow and into the future,” she said. “It’s time to stand together to champion the value of locally produced premium content to brands.

“What we’re launching today is so much more than an organisation. We’re launching a crusade to protect something beloved by our community.”

The Premium Content Alliance said its charter builds off the back of ThinkTV, which launched in Australia in 2016 as a mechanism by which commercial and subscriptive TV organisations could come together to protect and promote their offerings to brand owners. The alliance will expand on this remit but also include premium digital and news publishing, with the key priority to produce research around the value of premium content. NewsWorkMedia’s emma readership metrics will also continue under the ThinkNewsBrands moniker.

The alliance plans to be operational by 1 July 2020.

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