Kalila Welch

Job cuts, restructures, depressed spend and corporate reputation firefighting. It's hardly a surprise that free-to-air networks have toned down the upfronts razzle dazzle – and some agency execs welcome a more tailored conversation. But could the shift put TV's recovery narrative at risk just as streamers are hitting the ads accelerator? OMG's Kristiaan Kroon reckons it might. Foxtel Media's Mark Frain sees things the same way. He's still planning to go large.

Artificial intelligence makes for solid panel fodder at an event like SXSW. The playbook goes that creativity and insight will overcome a sea of machine-generated same, and that humans will be masters of the machines and their prompts while everybody will upskill and adapt. But then someone asks an unscripted question: What about London's creative industry being decimated? Accenture Song's global and APAC creative chiefs didn't duck the question – but reckon there's a rebalance incoming.

Foxtel's aiming to beat OzTam to market with its new trading currency – with the two set to land days apart. That could prove bumpy for media agencies. Foxtel Media boss Mark Frain, while piling pressure onto the incumbent currency provider, hasn't ruled out bringing everything back together. But only under a "very different operating model". In the meantime the pay TV firm turned streamer is going all-out to align new partners: Measurement firm Beatgrid, IPG's Magna and Wesfarmers are running tests on reach, frequency, incrementality and brand lift, while Amplified Intelligence and OMG are building a major video streaming attention and context amplification study for the Video Futures Collective.

Cummins & Partners is without a CEO after Michael McConville's departure from the indie creative shop. It is not yet clear whether his role will be replaced. The former Adam&EveDDB boss had attempted to put creative effectiveness and econometric modelling at the heart of the agency's model, arguing it could reset fee structures based on results. How far McConville managed to implement that change is open to question – but at least he tried.

Seven's new leadership has had to align fast following a major clear out, though some agency chiefs suggest they're not quite there – yet – as a cohesive unit. Meanwhile, a dialled-down upfront had the network promising to be a “better partner” instead of “obsessing” purely about winning overnight ratings; repositioning its streamed content as SVOD, not BVOD; and claiming its new tech can predict audience behaviour 28 days out with 95 per cent accuracy – and maybe even keep them from switching channel. Plus, it's wooing smaller advertisers with $10m worth of inventory to prove total TV's effectiveness.

Suncorp's CMO Mim Haysom confirmed the now insurance pureplay had consolidated its nine insurance brands with Publicis-owned Leo Burnett after a sweeping review of its creative and production partners in a strategic overhaul following the sale of Suncorp Bank to ANZ.

Dentsu Creative ECD Sarah McGregor has parted ways with the business on mutual terms, meanwhile Kmart might be ending its on-again-off-again relationship with the agency as a creative pitch looms.

The Government has gone all out to make its $22.7bn Future Made In Australia plan land with a splash. On paper a $45m campaign budget – with $4m for The Monkeys – should a recipe for success. The challenge is getting voters to give a toss about a vision of future prosperity years away from today's long-running wallet squeeze and spiralling bills. Whether Australians are willing to pay more to support beefed-up local industries over cheaper imported alternatives will determine the policy's success or failure. Consumer researchers say it comes down to collective willingness to put the bigger picture over our own back pocket. The data says it's highly unlikely – and the odds of an ad campaign moving the needle are pretty long.

Last year, Apple made an iOS update that podcast businesses hadn't seem coming – and as a result downloads globally plummeted 15 per cent. For some, the impact was massive, with The Kyle & Jackie O Show losing 48 per cent. Cue commercial scrambling. With the dust now settled, industry execs reckons the new numbers are more real, more transparent and have downweighted downloads – which can be misleading – as a core commercial metric. What's more, podcast revenue is strongly climbing locally. Acast's Henrik Isaksson, LiSTNR's Grant Tothill, and Nova's Nicole Bence unpack what happened when the numbers dropped overnight – and how things have panned out.

Foxtel's sale to DAZN, the UK-based and soon-to-be Saudi-backed sports streamer, injects an extra layer of spin into Australia's sporting rights game just as other globals weigh the risk of overpaying versus slowing subscriber growth and ad business upside. It also offers an interesting undercard around Foxtel Media's increasingly close relationships with global streamers over video measurement and trading currency. Meanwhile Foxtel's advertising set-up and programmatic nous could prove a boon for DAZN's broader ad expansion locally and regionally.