Maybe they saw it as a lesser of two evils? CBS, who probably don’t care that much about unions, or Murdoch, who hates them with a passion?
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… so you prefer left wing crazies? (do read all about the Redstone family and all of the stories that are now coming out about the CBS management) … and how many times does it have to be spelled out that News Corp had nothing to do with this before all the crazy conspiracy theorists understand?
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… yep, I think you’re spot on … whether that turns out to be the best for the actual staff and audience is yet to be played out of course …
Well you’re really quite dismissive of 10 staff aren’t you. Please bear in mind that there are more than journalists that make up the payroll and ALL OF THEM knew what Murdoch was going to takeaway from the company.
They knew because it was already happening.
Then CBS the television company came in and things were going up. Then Viacom the production company merged back with CBS and took over international operations…
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G’day Andrew Gordon. How are you? Long time no chat.
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Sorry but Bruce may be a solid business man, but he knows nothing about the entertainment industry. He signs affiliate deals with anyone he can, he has no chops in “entertainment” at all
And the end game IS streaming.
TV is in decline. Streaming is booming.
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Is this the same Bruce Gordon who said 15 years ago, the internet would be a short-lived craze?
The end game is streaming.
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… which everyone knew was happening … but they went ahead anyway …
… and you know that … how? … have you even met him?
Well I’ve never met rod Hastings Nor the heads of Disney, NBC, nine, bbc etc - but they all run entertainment divisions - they RUN them
Bruce owns an affiliate group. They make no entertainment or programming decisions other than swapping out programming on peach for 1960s reruns
WIN is a programming relayer
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Lol 
How do you figure that? The rumours and talks didn’t begin until months after CBS aquired 10.
Gordon and Murdoch only joined forces because the media ownership law changes hadn’t made it through parliament yet and individually neither could own the network outright. There had clearly been a long term plan in motion to drive 10’s share price into the ground and acquire a FTA license for relatively nothing.
Add to that, that these people had been participants on the board of directors for years - years that saw 10 decline to a state that it has clearly been unable to recover from… poor decisions on programing, mass expenditures on risky ventures leading to more and more staff cuts - why would the staff vote to have these people take over the company? It is nonsensical.
It is my personal belief that the activity on the board should’ve been much more closely monitored by anti competitive oversight earlier on - look at the way James Packer and Lachlan Murdock jumped onto the board and any shows that were directly competitive with Foxtel disappeared (sure, this is conspiracy level thinking, but it’s compelling). Sports Tonight, Video Hits, and One as a dedicated sports channel all disappeared within 12 months of them taking over.
One HD may not have been a ratings success, but it wasn’t much improved after its change.
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… er talks at CBS Board level about the merger started in earnest in 2016 having been mooted for a long time before that …
… yep, that just about sums it up 
… nope, that doesn’t explain your absurd assertion that Bruce has “no chops in entertainment at all”
This thread needs more ellipses.
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Yes, but those talks ended a few months later and the idea was rejected.
You can’t argue that our conclusions are invalid, while claiming your own conspiracy thoughts as fact.
So enlighten us. What “entertainment” experience does Bruce have?
He owns TV stations that have 99.9% of their programming decided by other people. He then inserts ads into it. That’s not entertainment. That’s business.
He famously has shunned digital and lost the #1 network to the #3 network.
His TV station groups “entertainment” decisions amount to swapping Sienfeld for Colombo on Saturday night on 10Peach.
The entertainment industry is about producing and creating shows, telling stories, entertaining people and expanding into new ways of telling stories and creating content (streaming) that’s what NBC, Netflix, ABC, Seven, Foxtel, Stan etc do. They are in the entertainment industry.
Bruce sells ads into other peoples shows. That’s what his business does. And he does it so bad that it’s like musical chairs. When the music stops the unlucky network has to pair up with WIN.
So what entertainment industry chops does he have?
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Doesn’t matter, my point is that there was clearly suspicious activity going on and grounds for it to be investigated. Why on earth would anyone agree to these clowns taking over the network entirely?
… if you can’t be bothered to look up Bruce’s history in the entertainment industry before publicly insulting him on these forums, I certainly can’t be bothered to “enlighten” you …
… because ever since politicians on both sides … starting with Hawke and Keating … started interfering with broadcasting regulation to suit their media-mogul “mates”, media regulation has been watered down from a point that a single entity could only own two television stations in Australia, had to be a “fit and proper person” to hold a licence and could not be foreign to what we have now …