Channel Seven finds culprit of Rebecca Maddern hot mic leak about Novak Djokovic

Channel Seven finds culprit of Rebecca Maddern hot mic leak about Novak Djokovic
Channel Seven finds culprit of Rebecca Maddern hot mic leak about Novak Djokovic

A captioning service is believed to be responsible for leaking off-air footage of Channel Seven newsreader Rebecca Maddern slamming Novak Djokovic in an expletive-filled rant, network sources claim.

An investigation into the incident continues after footage went viral on Tuesday night of the new network recruit and veteran broadcaster Mike Amor criticising the tennis star after a court ruled he would be allowed to stay in Australia.

Sources close to network's 'witch hunt' revealed the next day that Seven bosses had ruled out a disgruntled employee for the leaked recording and had narrowed their search to a private 'playlist company' with access to the nightly news feed.

It's understood a separate internal investigation by Ai-Media, which provide captions for the hearing-impaired, is also now underway.

Network sources claim captioning company Ai-Media was responsible for the leaking of off-fair footage of Channel Seven recruit Rebecca Maddern (pictured)

Network sources claim captioning company Ai-Media was responsible for the leaking of off-fair footage of Channel Seven recruit Rebecca Maddern (pictured)

Ai-Media boss Tony Abrahams is believed to be leading the investigation through staff interviews and extensive IT network tracing to track down who leaked the recording.

Crisis talks have occurred between Channel Seven and Ai-Media, with the network assured the culprit will be tracked down, senior network sources told The Australian.

They hope the investigation will be finalised on Thursday, adding the network is 'likely' to report the incident to police.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ai-Media for comment.

Channel Seven employees have been cleared due to the timestamp visible in the footage, which does not appear on internal Seven video outputs. 

It's believed the 'mole' may have made a copy of the damaging footage while accessing Seven's feed, before adding the commercials and putting the edited news feed to air. 

The newsreaders' expletive-laden rant, which appears to have taken place while preparing to present the station's 6pm news program, included Maddern saying: 'Whatever way you look at it, Novak Djokovic is a lying, sneaky, a***hole.'

Mike Amor and Rebecca Maddern (pictured) have apologised after 'hot mic' leak

Mike Amor and Rebecca Maddern (pictured) have apologised after 'hot mic' leak

Amor added: 'That's it, I mean he's an a***hole. He got a bulls*** f*****g excuse and then fell over his own f*****g lies. It's just what happens, right, that's what happened.

Maddern has since apologised to her bosses for badmouthing the world number one.

Furious executives immediately launched a witch hunt to track down the culprit behind the leak with one Seven source claiming an external broadcast company is likely to blame.

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