Nine has launched an internal investigation into the Don Burke “sexual predator” accusations and is “encouraging people to come forward”, as lawyers say that Nine is exposed to a potential class action and could be liable for substantial damages.
GTV9 managing director Ian Paterson has been promoted to the new role of Director – Commercial Partnerships and Affiliates. GTV9 Director of Sales Matt Scriven is the new managing director.
The owner of the TCN9 site at Willoughby has put forward a new redevelopment plan to the NSW government that radically changes the existing court approved plan. The council, local residents, and the local member and premier Gladys Berejiklian are all opposed to the new plan.
Nine have gone from being debt free after the restructure in 2013 to having debt of $224.5 million in mid 2017 compared to $177.6 million in mid 2016. Nine refinanced their debt in late December, and have access to another $200 million plus they can add to the debt.
piling debt on top of debt does not solve the problem of expense exceeding income… I should know.
I would wager that Australian media companies cannot sustain themselves as publicly traded entities and they need a wealthy investor to scoop it all up to be able to absorb the lows, riding it out for the highs. (cough, CBS, cough Ten)
Similar to what happened with the Ten/CBS deal, do you think there’s a chance of the Nine Entertainment Company (and/or Seven West Media for that matter) being bought out by some multinational media conglomerate at some point in the future?
What lows? This is the new normal. Any executive expecting a future upswing back to previous highs is deluded from reality and looking for trouble. As viewers drop so should revenue (although networks have done certain things to delay this). Revenue has stayed pretty stable in recent years, but it will eventually start to slide.
We have already reached and passed the peak of the FTA industry in this country. Now it is about consolidation and ensuring costs are kept well under control.
Seven: NBC Universal perhaps?
Nine: Warner Bros perhaps?
the lows of losing over $200m a year. yeesh.
publicly traded media companies are unsustainable these days, especially if their core business are broadcast
Highly unlikely a US media company would be interested in in either network at their current value. We do know one offshore investor that is interested in Australian media and already owns WIN, almost 15% of Prime and is Nine’s biggest shareholder 
CBS / Ten 
I don’t admit to knowing much about business and finance though, so do explain in layman’s terms a justification
There was a unique set of circumstances that allowed Ten to be purchased by CBS for a bargain price of approx $210m when the network was put into administration because it was unable to pay upcoming debt and creditors. CBS itself as a program provider was owed approx $350m so was able to use wiping that debt as part of the purchase deal. That can’t happen again as Seven and Nine have dropped their output deals with US studios and their market capitalisation (approx $1.2 billion each) makes them very expensive and unattractive to purchase.
The deal of a lifetime for CBS - only made possible by the network being deliberately run into the ground to devalue it first, and leveraging their own position as a creditor to minimise the cash cost.
Nine and Seven haven’t been asset striped to the extent of Ten - there’s enough added value in their talent and non-broadcast assets (especially web properties for Nine) to make them worth orders of magnitude more than Ten was.
I would still bet on the obvious- Southern Cross Austereo and Nine, in some form or another.
not true. Ten’s loan facility was not due for payment until December, it only went into administration because the guarantors of the loan saw an opportunity to acquire a rare commodity (a FTA TV license in 5 cap cities) with one of four options. They chose the fourth, and riskiest, move which actually worked to nullify their stranglehold as shareholders because shares became worthless overnight.
Nine Network bought out by drum roll…maybe Bruce Gordons WIN?? 
Winten Property Group has dumped Grocon as the builder of the Nine headquarters in North Sydney after Grocon failed meet a deadline to lodge a bond with Winten. I’m guessing this may delay construction?