A video version of this article is available in the player above with vision of the interviews quoted.

Rick Astley passes 1 billion

If you’ve ever been ‘Rickrolled’ (and who of us hasn’t), you might be interested to know the song behind the prank has reached 1 billion streams on Spotify.

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Never Gonna Give You Up was released in 1987 by renowned hitmakers Stock Aitken Waterman and was a number 1 hit in the UK, US and here in Australia.

Around 2007, the song became something of a phenomenon when people started sending prank links to it on YouTube.

A user would be told the link was for one thing, but ended up being ‘Rickrolled’, or taken to the song.

There’s no doubt the prank helped the song stay fresh in the minds of people, leading consumers to search for the song on Spotify, which eventually led to the 1 billion streams.

“So who would have believed, after all these years, Never Gonna Give You Up has had a billion streams on Spotify” Astley posted on his official TikTok account.

“How amazing. Thank you for listening and lots of love and I’ll see you all soon, I hope.”

What an amazing achievement.

You can see his message in the video player above and, no, it won’t take you to the song – I promise!

Let the spin begin

It’s always funny when a company tries to discredit a story by trying to change the narrative.

That’s just what happened in regard to my exclusive story last week about I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! facing major budget cuts and its plan to pre-record for the 2026 series.

On Wednesday, Pedestrian published a hit job on my reporting without attributing the original article and without including the writer’s byline. Instead, it credited pedestrian.tv.

The PR fluff piece had obviously been given to the outlet by Channel 10, who did not want to officially confirm my reporting, but rather change the narrative.

According to the gushing story, the change from live to pre-recording has nothing to do with budget cuts (heaven forbid), but more to do with the availability of big names who do not want to do the show live.

As per the article:

“This change is massive,” one network insider spilled to PEDESTRIAN.TV. “Live TV has always been the dealbreaker for certain ‘celebs.’

Now that it’s pre-recorded, a whole bunch of big names who used to say ‘nah’ are suddenly very interested.”

It continues:

Basically, removing the live element means ‘celebs’ don’t have to stress about getting cancelled in real time and producers can flex a bit more control over the chaos.

Think better editing, bigger stunts, and (hopefully) fewer awkward silences when someone gets booted.

But then comes the big one, squarely taking aim at my reporting this change was made for budgetary reasons:

And before anyone starts screaming “budget cuts!”, our sources are insisting this has nothing to do with Network Ten’s upcoming Big Brother reboot stealing all the coins.

“If anything, this frees up resources to chase even bigger names,” the insider said.

“Think, international guests and proper A-listers, not just someone who got kicked off The Bachelor six years ago.”

Why, then, did Channel 10 pre-record the finale this year, shooting three different versions and sending the entire production team home early?

Obviously, that had nothing to do with budget!

I can’t wait to see Tom Cruise, Scarlett Johansson and other top tier talent take to the jungle in the next season, rather than a tragic bunch of nobodies.

If 10 wants to change the narrative, then why not go on the record, confirm my reporting (which is correct) and make an official statement, rather than leaking to an outlet.

At least we know they’ve already confirmed that McKnight was right!

Media Watch hits out at Today

It was interesting watching the hit job done by the ABC’s Media Watch on Monday night against Channel 9’s Today Show.

The publicly funded broadcaster took issue with the fact the breakfast show dared into a commercial deal with UAE.

Host Linton Besser wasn’t happy with the show showing the positive tourist attractions of the country, rather than focusing on the negatives.

“The UAE is a repressive nation-state governed by an absolute monarchy whose arbitrary and fickle approach to justice and the law can create frightening risks for those who move there for work, like 28-year-old Emirates Airlines flight attendant Tori Towey, an Irish citizen who in June last year was strip searched and charged with attempting suicide after fleeing domestic violence” Besser said.

All of that is true.

But even though Besser declared Today had failed in “spectacular fashion” in journalistic terms, he did have to acknowledge Nine did not hide anything from viewers.

“Despite the entire outside broadcast being funded by UAE government-backed businesses, which Nine did disclose, a spokesman for the media company told us the ‘event TV’ project had not been vetted by the foreign government”.

OK, so what exactly is the problem here?

Breakfast shows have always been a mix of news and entertainment.

Sunrise certainly turned the format on its head in the 2000s when it introduced ‘newstainsment’ and became the number one breakfast show – a position which is still in place today.

Commercial arrangements are a part of breakfast TV and there is no issue as long as those deals are made clear to the audience.

Media Watch did not challenge Nine’s position that the deal with UAE was disclosed.

Nine and Today have never been shy about reporting on the atrocities that have taken place in the region and I don’t believe this short-term deal will change that.

So, Media Watch – which does not rely on commercial deals thanks to the $1.1 billion of government funding the ABC receives each year from taxpayers – thinks the show should have refused the money or done a big expose.

Let’s live in the real world.

Commercial broadcasters are doing it tough and deals like this help them to survive.

If a big story about the UAE had broken and the Today Show hadn’t covered it, then Media Watch should rightly call them out.

But that didn’t happen.

Instead, what we have here is an elitist attitude from a government-funded entity that doesn’t rely on revenue to survive.

Rob McKnight is a content specialist for 7NEWS and co-owner of TV Blackbox. His McKnight Tonight home internet show streams on Saturday night at 8pm AEST.

INSIDE MEDIA is published every Monday and Thursday on the 7News website.