A TV industry insider writes:


There’s an interesting
missive floating around Sydney newspaper offices from a Nine Network
insider telling all about the alleged inconsistencies and other odd
behaviour by Nine Network CEO Sam Chisholm.

The circular details
a number of cases where decisions have been made, forgotten,
countermanded or just changed for no apparent reason. Worse still,
decisions are being delayed and detail not attended to.

One of
the claims refers to a lunch of senior third floor managers at Nine
(sans Chisholm) at Icebergs eatery at Bondi. The managers or executives
all made a pact to stick together, not dump on each other, and
“outlast” Chisholm at Nine. There have been rumours of such an
agreement for more than a month.

Meanwhile the poaching of
Jessica Rowe continues to bedazzle Nine and Ten, with the latter
playing hardball. It seems that despite claims to the contrary, Rowe
did not show her Ten contract to Nine and there were no legal advisers
in on the negotiations.

There is a six month “termination” or
“no compete” clause that will be very hard to break, being similar to
the industry standard. There is no love lost between Ten management and
Nine, even though Ten chairman Nick Falloon was an executive under
Chisholm during his time at Nine.

So will Ms Rowe’s ambition to ruin her life by getting up at 3am to start on Nine’s Today Show be put in abeyance? It’s lawyers at close quarters in the NSW Supreme Court today.