Changes to media ownership

I recently received some information about changes to media ownership in Australia compiled by Steve Ford, Content Rights Manager at Media Monitors. If this stuff doesn't float your boat, eject now. Otherwise read on and suck it up.


In mid-2005, the Minister for Communications, Helen Coonan outlined proposed changes to the Broadcasting Services Act, removing foreign ownership restrictions for television from the Act and largely removing ‘cross-media’ ownership restrictions and the pundits were predicting big changes, including a consolidation of media assets.

After a slower-than-expected passage through Parliament, the new media ownership laws were proclaimed on 29 March 2007, and the expected rash of mergers and takeovers has followed.

PBL
PBL Media, owner of the Nine Network, paid $250m for NBN, the Nine affiliate in north-east NSW and the Gold Coast. NBN was a significant regional prize, with the fourth largest viewing audience in the country, after Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Shortly after PBL claimed NBN, the Packer family sold down their interest in PBL. CVC Capital Partners, a London-based private equity firm, paid more than $5b for a 75% stake.

WIN
Bruce Gordon’s WIN-TV missed out on NBN, but bought Perth’s Channel 9 from Sunraysia Television for $163m and Adelaide’s Channel 9 from Southern Cross, for $105m.

FAIRFAX AND RURAL PRESS
Fairfax Media and Rural Press merged, creating a combined operation to rival News Limited in total newspaper circulation. The deal brought the Fairfax family back into the company bearing its name, with Rural Press chairman John B Fairfax and brother Tim joining the Fairfax board. Fairfax family interests now own almost 15% of Fairfax Media.

Prior to the Fairfax-Rural Press merger, Rural Press bought the Riverina Media Group, the privately-owned publisher of Wagga’s Daily Advertiser.

(The sale of the Daily Advertiser leaves only three independent regional dailies in the market – the Shepparton News, Mildura’s Sunraysia Daily, and the union-owned Barrier Daily Truth in Broken Hill).

MACQUARIE MEDIA GROUP
Macquarie Media Group has bought Southern Cross Broadcasting, in a deal valuing Southern Cross at $1.35 billion. Macquarie is on-selling some key assets - including 2UE, 3AW and the Southern Star television production company - to Fairfax Media. (Macquarie Media Group is a subsidiary of Macquarie Bank, and not related to the once dominant Macquarie Broadcasting Network, now reduced to 2GB-2CH.)

NEWS LIMITED
Since late 2006, News Limited has acquired 16 community newspapers and 25 magazines from the Federal Publishing Company, for a total of $340m. News sold down its strategic stake in rival Fairfax.

RETURN OF THE MOGUL?
The Packer family’s exit from television seemed to signal the decline of the Australian media mogul. In that context, the return of the Fairfax family to the big smoke, having quietly built a fortune in the bush, is an interesting turn.

What goes around comes around. The Fairfax family once controlled a (Sydney-centric) media empire, including the Sydney Morning Herald, ATN-7, and the Macquarie Broadcasting Network. Fairfax Media now has about one-third of total newspaper circulation, eight metro radio stations, a television production company, and is sure to make an aggressive play for mobile television spectrum.


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