Who knew? Editor-at-large of The Oz wears ugg boots. From The Oz website yesterday, a few startling disclosures from the ugg boot wearing, ice cream licking, female editor-at-large Paul Kelly:

The leaks about Adam Boland’s future keep coming. What these leaks about Adam Boland thinking of walking from Seven don’t quite understand is that there is no incentive for him to leave. This latest one about Jeff Browne, the chief operative of the Nine Network, and his attempts to seduce Boland to Nine when his Seven contract ends next February, misses one point. Why would Adam Boland, a smart chap, want to swim towards the Titanic? Nine is sinking. It has just been passed by Foxtel in terms of profits, its audience is skewing old and the people Boland would have to work with at Nine don’t know very much about TV anymore. By offering Garry Linnell’s job to Boland, Browne has ensured he will be on the hunt for a new News and Current Affairs head. Perhaps 60 minutes’ John Westacott will try again for the top job, knowing that Linnell can’t really stay if he wants to preserve face. Perhaps Westacott has been talking to the author of the story, Amanda Meade. Certainly someone at Seven and Nine are filling her in very nicely, and undermining both Boland and Linnell, which is a clever trick. She claims that Browne wants people who know TV around him (maybe in the manner of Caesar and Brutus). Well, seeing how he and Eddie punted 85 or so people last year, many of whom had a lot of knowledge about TV, especially from the Sunday program, that’s a bit rich. And his outrageous comments went straight through to the keeper. Boland is still making up his mind. Don’t be surprised if he stays at Seven and gets control of factual type programs. — Glenn Dyer

Julia Zemiro’s talent not being recognised by Nine Last night’s episode of Ten’s hit Thank God You’re Here showed just how Nine’s ability to make interesting TV has slipped. Julia Zemiro, the Sydney comic and host, starred as an over the top doctor in a madcap, and funny, skit. Zemiro has talent and it’s being recognised, but not by Nine. Zemiro’s current gig, or rather most recent gig, was fronting What A Year with Bert Newton at 7.30pm Monday nights. I say recent gig because this week Nine canned the program after two eps were broadcast. They just didn’t know how to make use of Zemiro, or Bert’s abilities. It didn’t help that the program was a dud. What’s more astonishing is that to replace What A Year, Nine has gone back to a program screened around two years ago, in mid 2005. Windsor Castle, yes, the Queen’s house in Britain. That Nine has reached into the vault to replace a dud program with a musty repeat from two years ago, says as much about how the network looks at its viewers: to be driven away to the opposition. Windsor Castle a long term answer? No way. It will be crushed by Border Security / Surf Patrol on Seven. And Nine viewers will be the losers, once again. Those repeats on Nine and Ten this year are the big driver behind the 6% drop in prime time viewing for Free To Air TV this year. Which is sad. Pay TV isn’t much better, but at times compared to Nine and Ten, it would have to be streets ahead. I know two subjects 20 to 1 won’t look at. Nine’s ratings triumphs of 2007, and its great programming decisions in recent history. — Glenn Dyer

ICE TV ices Nine in court. The Nine Network (AKA The Titanic) has had another loss. Its attempts to monster Sydney based ICE TV over the latter’s construction of an electronic program guide, have failed. In the Federal Court today Justice Annabelle Bennett ruled against Nine. Nine had accused ICE TV of breaching copyright by reproducing its TV schedules in electronic form. It claimed a further infringement because people can use digital recorders to make copies of TV programs. ICE TV disputed the claims. It says it puts together its program guide from publicly available information, writes its own program descriptions. ICE TV says it makes the software so people can record television programs, but says it’s not responsible for people using PCs or digital recorders to make copies or skip the ads and that’s the real issue. Today, in Sydney, Justice Annabelle Bennett agreed that Nine owned the copyright to its program guide but dismissed Nine’s claim on the basis that ICE TV “does not reproduce a substantial part of” Nine’s guide. She agreed with ICE TV that its EPG was compiled independently and ordered Nine to pay ICE TV’s costs. That’s another little financial headache the old Nine owners, the Packers, have handed the new owners, CVC. The irony is that Nine is now part of the TV industry’s FTA electronic program guide, which will allow anyone to access and record programs. The only proviso is that the DVR/PVR makers must, as FTA Australia says must comply with “base-level requirements designed to protect copyright, protect the integrity of the program information and facilitate collection of ratings information”. That will force manufacturers to alter their machines for the Australian market and leave owners of current DVR/PVRs which don’t meet these requirements, out in the cold.

WAN declines PBL’s Hoyts offer. So West Australian newspapers has declined James Packer’s kind invitation to buy half the turkey they both bought from the Packer family back in 2005. The decision not to exercise the purchase option was given wide publicity, but it is strange no one really pointed out the reason why WAN would not be a buyer. Kerry Stokes and Seven’s 17.1% stake in WAN. Rival media, rival TV and print interests, and a certain bitterness of spirit flowing from the C7 case and the story in The Bulletin this week that featured a look back at Stokes’ life, in unflattering terms. There was also another piece of history that has conditioned Stokes’ to dealing with the Packers and selling and buying assets from them and that was the joint venture ownership of TV Week. Stokes or his advisers stuffed up an attempt to keep it but Packer and ACP won, and now have 100% ownership of the mag and The Logies. The PBL and Packer camps chortled at having put one over “Little Kerry” over TV Week . So with that background a deal with the Packer interests to buy Hoyts and complete the asset sales that Packer has planned before splitting the company, was just a pipedream at WAN with its new biggest shareholder. WAN CEO Ken Steinke knows it wouldn’t have gone down well, not unless a shifty could be pulled to give Stokes crowing rights over Packer. But Packer has the crowing rights in the Hoyts deal. He will be up by around $70 million or more on the 11 million shares PBL issued to his family company for the 50% of Hoyts PBL:is trying to get rid of. WAN has taken a $60 million write down on its share. Packer doesn’t want to sell the Hoyts stake for less than book. He will, if he wants a deal. PBL Media doesn’t really want it, but Ian Law, the man who put WAN into Hoyts is CEO there, could he be trusted to once again not smell a rat? It’s easy for WAN from now on: when James Packer sells, it sells to the buyer of that stake. — Glenn Dyer

Last night’s TV ratings
The Winners: Again just 14 programs with a million or more viewers and it was Seven’s turn to run dead: the stewards will be calling an inquiry this afternoon to check the medication. The ratings front runner has had a bad and deliberate stumble. Ten though had the top two programs, again. It was a Wednesday night, after all. Thank God You’re Here was funny and 1.876 million people agreed. House was well, OK: 1.578 million people agreed. (Funny is more popular). Seven News was third with 1.425 million, Today Tonight was next with 1.325 million and Home And Away won 7pm with 1.295 million. The ABC’s Spicks And Specks averaged 1.256 million at 8.30pm (Jamie Redfern was on and Ella Hooper!). Nine News was 7th with 1.255 million, Cold Case averaged 1.240 million at 8.30 pm and A Current Affair was again down at 1.158 million and 9th spot. The 7pm ABC News averaged 1.155 million for 10th, in front of Nine’s Temptation with 1.01 million and McLeod’s Daughters battled manfully at 7.30pm for Nine with 1.072 million. Medium averaged 1.028 million for Ten at 9.30pm and Most Shocking, Seven at 7.30pm was 14th with 1.026 million. The Chaser repeat averaged 993,000 at 9pm, Neighbours, 919,000 at 6.30pm for Ten, Deal or No Deal, 899,000 for Seven at 5.30pm, The New Inventors, 831,000 for the ABC at 8pm.

The Losers: Losers? Seven, from 7.30pm onwards. It was embarrassing. Ran dead with dud new programs, compared to the times when Ten and Nine run dead with repeats. Small mercies from Seven? The movie, The Village at 8.30pm. A shocker, 489,0000 people. Who were they, give them all a medal for devotion to duty. When I tuned in there was a bloke carrying a crude wooden bucket and wearing a yellow robe with a hood. Seven should be ashamed. Just handing viewers to Nine, Ten, SBS and the ABC. This is supposed to be dog eat dog commercial TV, not a charity. Shocker: The 7.30pm program on Seven was Most Shocking: it certainly was. How many more ways can we recycle police car videos?

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally but lost Sydney and Melbourne. Today Tonight won nationally but lost Melbourne. Ten News At Five averaged 898,000. Nine’s Nightline, 260,000. The 7.30 Report, 871,000, Lateline, 280,000; Lateline Business, 143,000. World News Australia, 197,000 at 6.30pm, 228,000 at 9.30pm after Dateline, 191,000. 7am Sunrise, 372,000 (low), Today, 258,000 (about steady). Seven’s 9am Morning Show, 157,000 (low). KAK on Nine at 9am, 113,000, 9am With David & Kim, 91,000 (lowish).

The Stats: Ten won with 29.9% (27.5% a week ago), from Nine with 26.7% (26.4%) and Seven on 21.5% (25.5%). The ABC was next with 17.5% (15.7%) and SBS was on 4.4% (4.8%.) Ten won all five metro markets but its share in Sydney, 27.4% was the lowest of the five. In regional areas though Ten’s offering doesn’t attract so Nine won through WIN/NBN with 31.2%, from Southern Cross (Ten) with 26.5%, Prime/7Qld with 23.5%, the ABC with 14.4% and SBS on 4.4%.  

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Ten had its best Wednesday night of the year and should be raking in the loot judging by the quality and number of ads in Thank God You’re Here. There probably wasn’t any more than normal but some of the ad breaks seemed long! House was a different matter. It is again straining credibility with storylines all over the place. 300,000 viewers went when Thank God changed to House, which is significant. But they didn’t go to Seven. The airwaves must have been busy around 8.25 to 8.40pm last night as people moved from Ten and Seven: Over 530,000 people left Seven from Most Shocking and the movie, based on the averages. Given the dud nature of the movie, the loss would have been quick. Seven should give advertisers back their money from 7.30pm last night onwards, just as Nine should return its revenue from 8.30pm to 10.30pm Tuesday nights (and at 7.30pm next Monday). Nine is now third in the week but with Sea Patrol tonight (Neighbours on Water), it will move back to second. Getaway will continue its revival for Nine tonight and it will win. Seven has Las Vegas and Crossing Jordan. There are intersecting storylines. That must have been an attempt in the US to save Crossing Jordan. It failed. Elsewhere it’s a night for reading, late night shopping or Foxtel.