Paramount Australia & New Zealand

Could a CBS purchase mean the return of Big Brother?

Hopefully. It is my favourite reality show and surely it would rate better or about the same as I am a Celeb and Survivor are doing now. It has always done well in the younger demos too. Anything would be better than Nine’s abomination of Big Brother in its last two seasons.

2 Likes

Who knows! I think it has more pulling power on Ten than surivior does. Ten did it well Nine screwed It up.

3 Likes

AFR reports bids due for Ten by August 18. Administrator and receiver hope to have a deal in place by the end of August when the last of $30million funding runs out.

4 Likes

Just been reading reports about CBS taking their CBS All Access SVOD service global. It’s launching in Canada early next year with plans to launch in “other markets in multiple continents around the world”. I’m surprised by the reported growth of the service in the US and the amount of premium original content they’ve invested in just for the service. CBS’s acquisition of Ten would certainly be a great launching pad for All Access in Australia.

10 Likes

But doesn’t CBS has an existing deal with Stan at the moment? Even if CBS All Access launches in Australia next year some shows may not be available at the launch.

1 Like

Not really…
Good Fight went to SBS and Star Trek is going to Netflix. So CBS All Access seems to be on the open market.

Stan’s deal looks like CBS Television Studios. CBS International Distribution and the like.

As is the case with other steaming networks, is it not? It’s not like they have much original all access programming anyway and could be contingent on whatever happens with their output deal with Ten.

1 Like

If the rumour is true then CBS would have to look at phasing in content once existing contracts expire, perhaps changing those to be non-exclusive (e.g. Netflix can have something a little while after CBS themselves so they keep a temporary exclusive).

Same as Amazon Prime Video and Netflix before it; they now have more content than when they started here.

For all we know cbs might turn around say ten are fucked and can’t make it work and someone else might win the bid.

At least there is a major media company interested. The equity players will be good for money management but they are interested in the media business per se.

As for Murdoch and Gordon… they just want to wreck the joint.

1 Like

That’s a bit harsh. They both want to make successful media empires - they just don’t really know how to run a successful TV network.

1 Like

It’s the truth though. One already has a successful media empire and running a successful tv network isn’t hard, all you have to do is rake over past mistakes (of which there is plenty) and concentrate on what works. Not hiring hacks is always a bonus too.

What incentive is there for Murdoch owning Ten? We’ve heard that all the multichannels are putting financial pressure on the networks due to fragmentation, He already owns Foxtel which you have to pay to access and free tv is direct competition to that business model and Ten needs lots of cash thrown at it to get it out the quagmire that it’s been in for years. Would he really have the will of the want to fix Ten’s myriad of problems? Not likely.

CBS would make much more sense. They have a vested interested to see it do well, are already in the business on a global level, have experience and success running a tv network and would invest in probably more locally made productions than Ten does now. It would almost certainly broaden Ten’s current demos.

4 Likes

The problem is that for any purchaser - they are buying into a market that will only get weaker, and getting the network worst positioned to be taken through the transition to a primarily online service.

If I were a major international media company wanting a foothold in the Australian market, I’d buy Stan, not Ten.

Something odd about it all is that if CBS bought it, they’d probably improve WIN’s financial position far more than anything them trying to buy it out would have done.

1 Like
1 Like

The Lachlan Murdoch and Bruce Gordon bid for Ten is all but dead after the Senate failed to pass the media reform package today. Bids for Ten are due tomorrow, but parliament resumes on 4 September.

7 Likes

Well that’s good. Plenty of other bidders. About time those two fucked off out of ten. They’ve ruined the joint.

18 Likes

gunning for CBS to bid pls

13 Likes

No chance of Bruce leaving the board, given his company’s affiliation with Ten, but at least he won’t get control.

Andrew Lancaster is Bruce Gordon’s rep on the Ten board. Gordon himself can’t be on the board due to the 75% reach rule.

the ACCC may find that there is no issue of Murdoch and Gordon taking over the network.

What has Bruce Gordon even done to the network, with so called

ruined the joint

I am sure they would find a way around it by not being the owners of the network. By doing news and sport (motorsport, and football)