Agreed. Besides, doesn’t the current Seven Network affiliation agreement for Prime expire at a different time to those of WIN & SCA (who theoretically at least, could reverse the great switch of 2016 in mid-2021 if they really wanted to I guess)?
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I doubt SCA would ever switch back to Ten unless Ten were interested in buying their TV stations. The real loser there would be Nine because they’d be forced to work with WIN again (lol)
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Think their best bet is to increase their offer to entice Gordon to accept it. Think Catalano will vote against the merger no matter what SWM offers for self-interest reasons
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Really? Somehow I think Bruce Gordon may even be more likely to try and kill the merger than Antony Catalano is, by bringing out the argument (which would be rather compelling if Gordon-owned WIN didn’t make major cutbacks to local content and other questionable decisions) that regional Australians need their TV stations owned by companies solely focused on regional Australians, not the major networks who’s main priority are metropolitan markets.
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wrell i think if this merger goes ahead it will get rid of the us and them culture in the tv markets. ie the metro vs regional tv and metro not giving a stuff about there regional counterparts
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The principle of I want more money?
Definitely the case under the current arrangement, but it would be interesting to see if that continues if Catalano gets control
I doubt this will occur - SWM arent really in a position to improve their offer (be it through dilution of their ownership or with cash) and the independent report into the deal didnt exactly say that the deal was bad
Gordon has maintained a series of “strategic” investments in his competition for times like this - its almost to the point of being a hostile shareholder.
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there goes the future of regional tv and you can blame antony and bruce for this
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Plus, do these guys plan on cutting more jobs and possibly axing local voices out if Prime is bought by either of these two?
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His current plan for the regional newspapers is to continue to buy multiple news stories everyday from AAP, which is owned Nine, News, and Seven.
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Sources with knowledge of the deal said Mr Gordon is unwilling to budge on his refusal to accept the deal, even if the offer is increased substantially.
Australian Community Media executive chairman Mr Catalano is also unlikely to change his position in the next nine days but is likely to jostle for a close relationship between his newspaper business and Prime.
Seems like Prime is now being (figuratively) held hostage by Gordon and Catalano’s “my way or the highway” attitudes…
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Well more the principle of
Maybe a stupid idea but if we used government powers to restrict ad revenue going offshore to companies like google and facebook we could use protectionism to save our media companies meaning less pressure for them to merge and slash and burn.
Pretty sorry mess we’re in right now.
You mean like China?
Yeah but with less emphasis on state ownership and censorship
@TonyCTC the government can’t force corporations where to spend their ad dollars. That goes against everything that a free market society is
So Australians choose to be online more. And on air less. And yet the government forces companies to spend their as dollars on air?
How about the broadcasters adapt to market behaviour?
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Agreed. For all the faults (and there are many) of Seven, Nine, Ten, the ABC, SBS and News Corp, at least they’re attempting to evolve their business models by trying new things.
I’m sure most people here would hate to see many hard working journalists at Prime, WIN and ACM lose their jobs if these companies were to go bust, but at the same time it’s hard to feel sympathetic for people like Antony Catalano and Bruce Gordon if they fail to properly evolve their dying business models for the 2020s.
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multinational corporations are the antithesis of a free market and they’re pulling billions out of our country and moving it offshore
WIN Corporation is wholly owned by Hoverton which is wholly owned by Bruce Gordon who is for taxation reasons a resident of Bermuda. The profits of Hoverton all end up in Bermuda.
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Yes and I take issue with that.