Maybe not. Seven might be looking at the big picture. Perhaps Seven are worried they will end up with Bruce Gordon if they dont buy Prime7. Prime7 has for a while been valued lower than other regionals (SCA the only other on the stock exchange atm) and perhaps they think if they dont buy it, CBS may decide to buy it, leaving the options for the east coast as WIN or SCA, both of which would have complexities in the eastern states.
The other possible benefit of buying Prime now is that it puts SCA in tough spot. It wants to sell, has no obvious interested buyer (it was hoping that it get bought out by Seven at the end of the current affiliation contract), so it might be willing to sell its Seven-affiliated assets at a cheap price. Pure speculation, of course.
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I always thought a radio player would be interested in SCA TVs arm (especially where there was cross over/related synergies with the Ten affiliated stations) but perhaps it really is a cactus asset.
Grants have moved to a merger themselves and Caralis would want it dirt cheap.
Even News Corp or Viacom CBS probably donât even think itâs worth anything without the radio stations included too.
I would love to see a breakdown of the revenue and cost of each TV station because I daresay that a potential buyer probably would only want the profitable ones and avoid any loss making operations.
But then again CBS bought Ten for a song
Unfortunately unlike the United States you canât go and say, Iâll buy Sunshine Coast and Tamworth and Newcastle from you.
The licence is for the entire broadcast area (ie- Regional Queensland, Northern NSW etc) so you would be purchasing stations which may or may not be making any profit.
Perhaps ACM might make a serious play for SCA TVs assets now they canât possibly control Prime7.
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I know its a licencing area thing, i was more thinking as an example Spencer Gulf and Broken Hill stations must be making some money to produce local news whereas channels such as Mount Isa (ITQ8) might not be
The big picture isnt legacy media - while this acquisition ties up some loose ends, its not going to shore up the future of the company in any substantial fashion.
It was hard to see these acquisitions going along anything but along affiliate lines - Gordon has also subsequently hitched his wagon to Nine.
Prime is also the smallest of the regional broadcaster groups, so it stands to reason that they are valued lower.
But donât some of theses stations now become profitable with being one owner and less overheads and less costs and seven can just sell national ads and keep 100% revenue of a reduced cost base for operating these assets. Thereâs got to be some synergy in owning and operating a whole of country network.
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Possibly, there are clear benefits theyâll be able to exploit by having a streamlined back-of-house but there will be a lot they cant do much with
Like maintaining 50 times the number of transmitters and backhaul links, for example
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The contract NBCU currently has with Stan would have to expire first (next year, but they have a further 12 month option). There had been talk about NBCU launching Peacock here and 7W would have been a natural partner for that in the past if itâs launched standalone, but they arenât the only game in town now.
The Warner/Discovery merger (presuming itâs completed next year) brings some options, especially if HBO Max and Discovery+ merge at some point⌠and Seven do have relations already with Discovery with some of their (ex-SNI) lifestyle content⌠but with that content spread across multiple networksâ multichannels, thatâs not a foregone conclusion either.
I guess it might be a âwatch this space next yearâ for any of this. I wonder if Seven still feel burnt by the demise of Presto a few years ago.
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I think the biggest benefit for Seven is they they get control of the regional revenue stream. They avoid the possibility of changes in the future with affiliate swaps, affiliates taking different directions etc, and fighting for a slice of the revenue pie.
Now they know who will be broadcasting their programs in the future (and more importantly that they will be broadcast). They donât have to negotiate over splitting digital revenue, which hasnât been an issue yet, but could be in the future. And theyâre not reliant on another company doing itâs job well to get that revenue - any variation in sale can only be due to market forces and Sevenâs own performance now.
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Move the Federal Parliament reporters out of Parliament House and into Prime7 studios in Canberra.
Yeah right, 25 minute drive away in wasteland Watson, I donât think so.
So the PM calls a press conference with 10 minutes notice, and Seven would miss out covering it being their crew is still stuck in traffic on Northbourne Ave.
Even the ABC has a fulltime presenece at both Parliament House and in Dickson with the ABC federal parliament reporters based fulltime at parliament house, never at Dickson.
I very much doubt Seven will keep Watson as a going concern anyway. It is prime real estate for redevolpment, same as the former CTC (SCA) site next door.
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Prime does 5 news bulletins out of itâs Canberra HQ, right? Including one live.
If Seven wants to maintain those - I guess a big question is do they keep the Canberra studios to do those 5 bulletins plus (possible) new ones in Newcastle & Canberra, or do they move it all to inner Sydney
You would keep (or expand) Canberra as the central news hub for regional news. I canât see any point in moving to another operation in Sydney.
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Prob the real estate in the ACT could fetch significant $$
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Think it will move.
Seven will no doubt outsource Prime Traffic to Manila in line with what Seven did with Seven multi-channels.
And what is to say Seven may well be including the moving of existing Prime News bulletins and possible resurrected ones in the design and build of the relocated Martin Place operation to Redfern?
NBN News production was originally planned to move to ODS, but instead moved to QTQ being ODS now does allot of downstream for Stan Sport now.
Producing multiple local news bulletins can be done with just one extra news studio/control room. Multiple completed in-the-can News bulletins need not be pre-recorded back to back WIN style. Rather, live compile playout of pre-recorded studio intros and packages can cut down production deadlines and enable live editing on-the-run whilst on-air. Plus, gives the flexibility to go live in one market where there is lots of breaking news, as in bushfires or floods etc. Sort of similar as how 7QLDâs 8 bulletins go to air now with the Sunshine Coast market mostly going live but switchable to another market if required for the latest breaking news.
So if Prime Traffic and Prime News leave Watson, what would be the point of keeping that building as a going concern?
Well Prime still has a Production presence in Canberra (the only Production team left in the network). Iâm guessing Seven wouldnât need these staff and Commercial Production could be outsourced.
Canberra News (if a full bulletin eventuates or the updates stay), Sales, Marketing and Prime GM/EA donât need a huge building. Thatâs if Seven want to keep Canberra as their AMC hub and not make Wollongong a more important function.
Seven could easily tag an extra studio/control room or two in Everleigh for Prime if they need. Not sure if Daniel Gibson would follow or even Seven would want him.
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Very interesting and informative discussion. Thereâs a lot more to this acquisition than it appears on the surface.
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