Logies called off ahead off nominations announcement

Embattled publisher Bauer Media announced the surprise decision after weeks of debate.

Tom Gleeson after winning the Gold Logie for most popular personality at last year’s Logie Awards on the Gold Coast. Picture: AAP

The biggest event in the Australian television industry’s calendar, the long-running Logie Awards, has been canned this year because of the coronavirus crisis.

Embattled publisher Bauer Media, whose TV WEEK magazine is the main sponsor of the Logies, announced the surprise decision on Tuesday night, despite nominations set to be announced at the end of May.

Fiona Connolly, publisher of Bauer’s weekly titles, said they had spent the past few weeks discussing with its event partners, including TV broadcaster Nine Network, what the Logies “could look like this year, whilst adhering to government restrictions and working around the challenges of COVID-19”.

“All parties agree the most positive outcome is to not hold the TV WEEK Logies, including public voting, in 2020, but to stage an even bigger event on the Gold Coast in 2021,” Ms Connolly said.

The Logies, which has been running since 1959, is “loved because it is a live event, with viewers at home enjoying seeing the red-carpet glamour and the entertainment community coming together to celebrate the television industry”, Ms Connolly said.

The annual live TV event on the Gold Coast on June 28 was canned last month, due to the crackdown on gatherings.

The surprise decision comes just a few weeks after The Australian’s Media Diary was reassured the Logies would go ahead later this year, minus the red-carpet awards ceremony or fancy party on the Gold Coast because of the ban on large gatherings.

Planning was understood to be well under way for nominations to be announced at the end of May as planned, with Nine working to come up with a new broadcasting plan.

“There will still be a Logies this year, it will just look a little bit different. Someone will still win the Gold Logie this year and it will be telecast,” a source told Media Diary just a few weeks ago. At the time, a Nine spokesman was tight-lipped on its telecast plans.

A spokesman for Nine’s parent company Nine Entertainment said on Tuesday night that they are “supportive of the decision Bauer have taken and we appreciate the ongoing support from the Queensland government through TEQ”.

Bauer’s future in Australia remains under a cloud, with the German family-owned magazine publisher understood to be considering exiting the market, which it entered in 2012 by acquiring Kerry Packer’s ACP Magazines for $500m.

Bauer has hired accounting and advisory firm EY to help with its strategic review, and is scheduled to complete its acquisition of Seven West Media’s Pacific Magazines division for $40m on Friday, after the parties extended the completion deadline earlier this month.

Its acquisition of Pacific was struck last October, before COVID-19 wiped out advertising revenue across the media industry.

Nine is also desperate to slash costs after last month dumping its annual guidance because of poor future advertising visibility in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

The company, born from Nine’s $4bn merger with Fairfax Media in December 2018, said the “rapid progression of COVID-19 is beginning to have an impact on its markets” since it issued its annual guidance in February, alongside with its interim results.

Nine had forecast full-year underlying earnings to come in at a “similar level” to last year’s $423.8m.