But yet they have kept the suspension of dividends in place. No doubt Prime Media will follow suit next week
That could spell the end of Prime Media being the Seven affiliate with Bruce Gordon’s ties to the Murdoch family. If Prime became the Ten affiliate, it could also mean that dividends in Prime Media may become almost non-existent or a whole lot of infomercials across the mains channel and 2 secondary channels - Prime (6, 60, 61) 7Two (62), 7Mate (63) to make up lost revenue. Thats without speculating what may become of the other 3 secondary channels
With Seven publically categorically denying any talk of a merger, if they were actually taking behind the scenes about a merger that would be illegal. That makes any talk about a merger very highly unlikely.
I think it could cause problems with ACCC due to News Corp ownership of Foxtel. A merger would create a less competitive market for sports rights for example.
Shane Dowling was jailed again today for contempt of court after breaching an NSW Supreme Court suppression order regarding articles he had written about the NSW judiciary.
Capilano Honey, partly owned by Seven majority owner Kerry Stokes, still has legal proceedings in train against Dowling for articles he has published on his blog. Dowling has a major beef against Stokes, the reason why is not clear.
Twitter Australia has signed up a new content deal with SWM, which includes new content support existing programming such as My Kitchen Rules as well as behind the scenes videos.
Katie Finney appointed Director Program Partnerships
The Seven Network’s Network Director of Sales Natalie Harvey today announced the appointment of Katie Finney as Seven’s Director of Program Partnerships.
Ms Finney, previously the Head of 7 Program Partnerships, succeeds Lisa Squillace who is leaving Seven to take up a role at another company.
In her new role, Ms Finney will steer overall strategy, creative direction and implementation of brand integration into premium programming on Seven, which has now been Australia’s most watched network for 12 consecutive years.
Ms Harvey said: “I am delighted to announce Katie’s appointment. The extensive experience she’s gained throughout her career at Seven has shown her to be second to none, and this is a very natural and perfect step up for her. I look forward to seeing her continued success in this new role.”
Ms Finney said: “I’m so excited to be taking on this new role. As we showed with our recent AFL / McDonald’s integration, Seven is a leader in the delivery of high quality, entertaining, brand integration into the most effective medium of TV.
“And with the biggest and best portfolio of entertainment brands to work with, from Kitchen Rules to House Rules, and Home and Away to Better Homes and Gardens, the integration opportunities for our commercial partners across all Seven West Media assets are unlimited.”
Ms Finney first joined Seven as a Sales Assistant in Melbourne in 2001 and has held roles within Seven of Sales Executive and Group Sales Manager before being appointed Melbourne Sales manager in 2015. She moved to Sydney in 2016 to take up the role of Head of 7 Program Partnerships. Ms Finney was a 2016 Australian Marketing Academy Scholar.
The NZ Herald has mentioned a rumour that NBC Universal is interested in buying the Seven Network. It was mentioned in a story speculating that NBCU is apparently interested in buying Sky TV and MediaWorks in NZ.
Rainer Rhedey appointed Chief Technology and Information Officer
The Chief Executive of Seven West Media (ASX: SWM) Tim Worner today announced the appointment of Rainer Rhedey as the company’s Chief Technology and Information Officer.
Mr Rhedey, who starts in his new role on December 3rd, joins SWM from Fairfax Media where he was Group General Manager of IT.
In the newly created role of CTIO, Mr Rhedey will be responsible for Seven West Media’s IT and technology systems and infrastructure.
Mr Worner said: “I’m delighted to welcome Rainer to the team. He comes with an outstanding track record, and will play a significant role in the ongoing transformation of our business, ensuring our technology and IT systems support all our people to achieve even greater success.”
Mr Rhedey said: “To be joining Seven, the market-leaders with such a long history of success and innovation, is fantastic. I’m looking forward to working with the terrific tech and IT teams to build on the great work they’re doing to ensure the Group has the best and most reliable, highly responsive and secure technology infrastructure.”
Mr Rhedey has over 20 years of experience in the technology industry, most recently as Group General Manager of IT at Fairfax. He has been responsible for a range of areas throughout his career, spanning from internal IT departments to professional services teams for systems integrators and software vendors.
Hypothetically though, as seen exactly with CBS owning Ten and now exclusive content supply.
If NBCU did purchase SWM, they’d no doubt cancel their content supply deal with Nine, being a rival commercial FTA broadcaster. Just like CBS-Ten, NBCU-Seven would be bizarre and counter-intuitive for NBC to still be supplying a rival and who you don’t own with content.
So I only base that solely off the CBS-Ten situation. Perfect example of what I think @JohnsonTV might have also been getting at?
NB/ remembering Seven and NBCU have had a long-time relationship since at least 2007 when they got the then output from Ten and years earlier with NBC Today