'Idol Gains'
The Australian - January 24th 2004
WITHIN an hour of being named the winner of Australian
Idol in front of a 5000-strong crowd at the Sydney Opera House in November, Guy
Sebastian was taken into a packed media room, given a pat on the back by BMG
boss Ed St John and introduced as the record company's newest artist.
The next day he was at Ten Network's headquarters juggling media interviews,
autograph requests and promotional responsibilities while struggling with only
two hours' sleep. Two days later, Ten handed the 22-year-old back to BMG who
took him straight into the recording studio where he emerged the next week with
his first album.
Within a month he was flown to London to film World Idol where he had his one and only meeting with Simon Fuller, the Idol creator whose show helped make Sebastian our newest star and in turn has made him, and many others, a lot of money. It was the beginning of endless post-Idol mania for Sebastian, but just a small part of the multi-faceted marketing and business empire which has evolved out of the phenomenon of the show.
Idol was created in 2001 by Fuller, the 43-year-old British music mogul and former manager of the Spice Girls who now heads 19 Entertainment. Along with Simon Cowell, an international BMG record executive (and judge of American Idol) and Alan Boyd from the UK production house FremantleMedia, Fuller has transformed Idol into a billion-dollar franchise.
Both BMG and FremantleMedia, which produces and holds the rights to the show, are subsidiaries of the German media group Bertelsmann. (Subject to regulatory approval, BMG is soon to be jointly owned by Bertelsmann and Sony, and will be known as Sony-BMG.) In turn, FremantleMedia is the parent company of Australia's Grundy Television Production (which produces Neighbours among other shows) which, as the local rights holder, approached the Ten Network when the decision was made to finally bring Idol Down Under last year.
According to Grundy chief executive Andrew Brooke, Australia was originally going to have the show first, but eventually the UK got it followed by the US before it spread around the world. Twenty-one countries (including France, Russia and Kazakhstan) screen versions of Idol.
The TV ratings are enormous. By the end of Australian Idol's run, its ratings averaged about 2 million a week while the final show, screened live from the Sydney Opera House, was watched by 3.65 million, making it the most watched non-sports show in 2003 and the Ten Network's highest rating show of all time.
World Idol, which brought winners from 11 countries together (including Sebastian) for a two-part special which began on Boxing Day, drew 2.4 million locally and hundreds of millions overseas. And the third American Idol, which premieres in Australia tomorrow night, was watched by 29 million when it began in the US on Monday.
While Grundy maintains the rights to the show and, as the local broadcaster, Ten benefits through the ratings and millions of dollars in advertising and sponsorships, BMG potentially has years of Idol profits. All parties involved in the local production of Idol who were contacted by The Weekend Australian were generally happy with how the three-way relationship transpired. However, BMG's general manager of marketing and Idol judge Ian "Dicko" Dickson, admits when Australian Idol 2 begins later this year, the record company would like to be involved in the image-making of the contestants a lot earlier.
"I think it was an enormous success but I think we, if I'm honest, would have liked to have our PR and styling team to enter the show a little earlier than they did," Dickson says.
The record company, which has the rights to the first pick of every Idol contestant, expects to sell 50 million singles and albums over the next four years on the back of the format worldwide. Locally, BMG has signed three Australian Idol contestants - Sebastian, his runner-up Shannon Noll and the larrikin Robert "Millsy" Mills who is perhaps now best known for his post-Idol fling with visiting US socialite and hotel-chain heiress Paris Hilton. It is for that precise reason that Mills was picked up by BMG instead of Paulini Curuenavuli, the 20-year-old Fijian with the voice of a soul diva who was widely expected to win a recording deal with the music company. For Dickson, the choice was clear.
"Ed (St John) and I talked about this long and hard and I was just enormously impressed how Millsy had never strayed too far away from the celebrity gossip magazines and the social pages," he says.
"Millsy represents this boy who should know better appealing to girls who should know better, girls who can't help themselves fancying this bloke who can't help himself.
"He represents the sort of guy who's going to do the things we all know are totally wrong but that we want our pop stars to do - we want our artists to do wayward things, we want them to root heiresses, we want them to be seen at celebrity parties, double-dating and have tearful remorse. You want a soap opera in your pop artists, and that's what Millsy gave us since he got the flick from the show."
BMG will also release a single by Idol's drag queen Courtney Act who has joined Sebastian, Noll, Mills and the rest of the final 12 contestants on the Australian Idol concert tour, which began with a sold-out show in Newcastle yesterday. Already, 68,000 tickets have been sold for the tour which will travel to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth over the next two weeks.
While the selling power of Noll and Mills (who both received multi-album deals and what Dickson described as "very good advances" from BMG) is yet to be determined - Noll's first single is released on Monday followed by his debut album on February 9 and Mills has not begun recording - Sebastian is reaping the rewards of winning. His debut single, Angels Brought Me Here, was the highest-selling Australian single of all time, while his album Just As I Am, which has so far sold more than 500,000 copies, is the fastest selling Australian album.
Like Angels, which was penned by Idol judge and former Australian pop star Mark Holden and first aired on Ten a fortnight before the end of the show, Sebastian's next single has also made its debut on TV.
In another clever cross-promotion the song, All I Need Is You, which will be released in early February, is Ten's network promo and features Sebastian and the station's various personalities frolicking on a beach. Sebastian is one of the faces of worldwide cola brand Pepsi, an expensive advertising campaign which also includes singers Beyonce Knowles, Holly Valance and Australian soccer star Harry Kewell.
An avid songwriter, Sebastian has also entered into a contra deal with Yamaha music where he will lend his image and attend corporate functions and trade fairs in exchange for being provided with musical equipment. As part of his Idol prize, Sebastian was also given a contract with David Caplice Management. Sebastian's team has expanded to include a legal contingent from Deacons law firm and an accountant -- much needed additions when there are huge financial matters and detailed contracts to deal with.
Caplice admits that Fuller's 19 Entertainment receives a part of the Idol winner's pay cheque "for a capped period", but says the UK company's involvement is best described "as a silent partner".
"We have no affiliation with 19 management but part of Guy's ongoing relationship is a financial one with them so (they receive) a part of what he earns in certain areas over a period of time," Caplice says, before adding quickly: "But nothing very significant."
Fuller was estimated by The Sunday Times in Britain to have earned $US60 million ($77 million) in 2003. A recent article in The Miami Herald reported Fuller had previously said he receives 25 per cent to 50 per cent of all Idol earnings.
Caplice, who also manages Noll, said the original Idol contracts gave little leeway for the artists to have much say over their dealings, but "after the show the restrictions are lifted and they (the talent) are 100 per cent in control".
Dickson said contrary to reports of Idol-affiliated companies taking advantage of the naivety of the contestants, Sebastian is "about to be a very, very wealthy boy indeed".
"He's got a very good deal that will keep him with this company (BMG) for quite a long time.
"He's had a fantastic start. He's made a shitload of money for himself, we've made a shitload of money out of him so everyone should be happy."