Defection from AFL rightsholder to upstart NRL team
Seven West Media news boss Anthony De Ceglie has quit the broadcaster after 13 months in the role to become the first CEO of the Perth Bears NRL expansion team.
Adding insult to injury, his current employer was last to publish, with the Nine Entertainment-owned Australian Financial Review breaking the story ahead of the NRL's announcement.
Seven then quoted Mr De Ceglie as saying: "I have loved every minute of my six-years at Seven West Media, both as Editor-in-Chief of West Australian Newspapers and more recently as the Director of News and Current Affairs at Seven."
Mr De Ceglie started his 13-month television career by telling staff to ignore ratings, later saying to outlet Mumbrella: "enough of sleepwalking into oblivion. Let’s bloody well try something".
In his pursuit of changes to tackle existential threats to broadcasting, where appointment, terrestrial viewing—and its advertising dollars—has made way for a more crowded online media market, Mr De Ceglie tried introducing analogues to the newspaper sections he'd have been familiar with.
The broadcaster hired comedian Mark Humphries for a weekly satire segment, and nightly horoscopes weren’t far behind.
Mr Humphries' first segment covered the 2024 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and much like Mr Biden's campaign, the satire and horoscopes didn't last.
Those changes weren’t welcomed by all.
When Queensland presenter Sharyn Ghidella was let go after 17 years with Seven, she took a parting shot at Mr De Ceglie by saying she's "not one to have [her] evening news served up with humour and horoscopes".
Ms Ghidella was snapped up by Network Ten as the broadcaster took the opportunity to restart its Brisbane-based bulletins that had been shuttered by Covid.
In one week of May, Ten's Brisbane news ratings were up more than 40 per cent on the same non-local week last year–although still about a third of its competitors.
Mr De Ceglie’s tenure also saw the network's Gold Coast bulletin axed, giving competitor Nine a local news monopoly in that market.
Other changes have endured.
A news department restructure saw network finance editor Gemma Acton’s MBA recognised when she was moved to a newly-created national news operations role.
Presenter Karina Carvalho now reads news for Seven, picked up by the broadcaster after leaving the ABC.
And Mr De Ceglie also sought political change, asking the government to scrap its Commerical Broadcasting Tax–or as he called it, "a tax on journalism".
The government ended up announcing a one-year pause in December.
But that may not have been enough for Mr De Ceglie.
It was the very Seven-owned newspaper he used to edit that had called the NRL team he'll soon run "Bad News Bears" for Western Australia, days before his defection.
Seven is paying part of a $4.5 billion dollar deal for its television broadcast and online streaming rights to competing code, the AFL.
