Seven’s newsreader leaker identified, contract under threat

The alleged culprit behind the leaking of studio footage of Seven Network newsreaders Mike Amor and Rebecca Maddern slamming tennis star Novak Djokovic has been identified, senior sources say.

Seven Network newsreaders Mike Amor and Rebecca Maddern.

The alleged culprit behind the leaking of studio footage of Seven Network newsreaders Mike Amor and Rebecca Maddern slamming tennis star Novak Djokovic has been identified, senior sources close to an investigation into the incident say.

Video of the hosts slagging Djokovic before the 6pm evening bulletin went viral on social media on Tuesday night, with the presenters labelling him an “arsehole”.

“Whatever way you look at it, Novak Djokovic is a lying, sneaky arsehole,” Maddern said.

“That’s it, I mean he’s an arsehole. He got a bullshit f..king excuse and then fell over his own f..king lies. It’s just what happens, right, that’s what happened,” Amor said.

On Wednesday, captioning service Ai-Media launched a thorough investigation, with an external “forensic IT auditor” called in to determine the exact source of the leak.

Staff have also been extensively interviewed.

Network executives are awaiting a report from Ai-Media, following the commencement of the investigation by chief executive Tony Abrahams.

Sources say an investigation is still under way into whether the staff member sent the footage to a friend, who then published the footage, or whether the staff member published the footage.

It’s not known whether Seven is looking at terminating the contract, which is understood to have fewer than six months to run.

It is expected the tender will be hard-fought between prospective replacements and the network will secure considerable savings.

It is understood the captioning of breakfast show Sunrise costs the network almost $750,000 a year, and the 6pm evening news comes at up to $80,000 per market.

Seven employees were cleared early in the investigation, with a timestamp – which does not appear on internal Seven video outputs – visible in the footage.

Shares in the company were trading at 68c, down 2.42 per cent on Thursday.

In the past 12 months, the share price of Ai-Media has fallen by 27.66 per cent.

Seven was contacted for comment but did not respond.

The Australian made several attempts to contact Ai-Media’s Mr Abrahams.