Publishing and Broadcasting

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Publishing and Broadcasting Limited , or PBL for short , was one of Australia's largest media companies based in Sydney . The company was one of the leading Australian companies in the ASX 50 share index (symbol: PBL) on the Australian Stock Exchange and part of Standard & Poor's S&P Global 1200.

In November 2007 the company was split into a media division, Consolidated Media Holdings, and a gaming division, Crown Limited; both companies are included in the S & P / ASX 50 index.

James Packer, Australia's richest man and son of the late media entrepreneur Kerry Packer , was the majority shareholder in Publishing and Broadcasting Limited through his company Consolidated Press Holdings Limited (CPH Ltd.). The company was valued at AUD 3.5 billion and had 8,271 employees.

history

The Australian Consolidated Press (ACP) was founded in 1933 . As in 1950 , the year television was introduced in Australia, the ACP received a broadcasting license in Sydney. Your television station, TCN-9 Sydney, began broadcasting in 1956 as the first television station in Australia. Bruce Gyngell's first words were: “Good evening, and welcome to television” (German: “Good evening and welcome to television” ).

In 1960 , the ACP took over the television station GTV-9 Melbourne , becoming Australia's first television network, the National Television Network (NTN), which later became The Nine Network . Kerry Packer sold the Nine Network in 1987 to entrepreneur Alan Bond , who expanded the network to include the QTQ-9 Brisbane and STW-9 Perth transmitters . Three years later, in 1990 , Packer bought the network back for half the price of the sale.

Publishing and Broadcasting Limited was formed in 1994 through the merger of Nine Network Australia and the Australian Consolidated Press (ACP).

In the late 1990s , the PBL lost millions trying to break into India with Nine India . The plan was to become one of the leading television providers in India; the plan was dropped a few years later. It remained only with program windows on two channels of the Indian television station Doordarshan .

In 1999 Crown Limited merged with PBL and PBL's online division, ecorp, was included in the Australian ASX stock index; ecorp was later privatized and excluded from stock exchange trading. In 2002 , PBL signed a contract with Prime Television for a 50 percent stake in Prime NZ, New Zealand .

In 2004 the PBL bought the Burswood Casino in Perth , took a 50 percent stake in the Hoyts Cinemas group and in West Australian Newspapers; Hoyts Cinemas was previously owned by Packer's private company Consolidated Press Holdings Ltd., which in the same year sold Papua New Guinea's only television network, EM-TV, to Fiji Television.

On October 18, 2006 , James Packer announced the sale of 50 percent of PBL's media stakes for the equivalent of 4.5 billion Australian dollars in order to focus on the gaming business. The sale includes the Nine Network and its 50 percent stake in NineMSN.

The PBL is currently involved in two casino projects in Macau : the Crown Macau, valued at AU $ 260 million (completed July 2006) and the City of Dreams, valued at AU $ 1.4 billion. Both projects are joint ventures with Melco, a Macau company.

In March 2006, PBL announced that it had invested $ 900 million (A $ 1.2 billion) in the purchase of a casino sub- license from Wynn Resorts to legally enable the Melco-PBL joint venture to do so To start casino operations.

Publishing and Broadcasting Limited's contribution to this endeavor was the largest investment ever made by an Australian company.

In May 2007, the PBL announced that it would be split into Crown Limited and Consolidated Media Holdings . The split was decided by the shareholders in November 2007 and became effective at the end of the same month.

Holdings

PBL Media

PBL Media is a joint venture between PBL and CVC Capital Partners (CVC Asia Pacific). It was founded in October 2006 when PBL outsourced its media holdings (including the Australian Consolidated Press, the Nine Network and the Internet news platform NineMSN). The recapitalization was announced on October 18, 2006.

Originally, both companies had a 50 percent stake. In June 2007, however, PBL announced that it would sell 25 percent of its stake to CVC for 515 million Australian dollars (AUD). If PBL is assumed to be split into two independent companies, PBL's remaining stake in PBL Media will in future be managed by Consolidated Media Holdings.

The current management of PBL Media is John Alexander (CEO), James Packer, Ian Law (CEO), Chris Anderson, Martin Dalgelish, Robert Lucas, Adrian MacKenzie and Maarten Ruijs. The Chief Financial Officer is Pat O'Sullivan (CFO). The following companies belong to PBL Media (as of September 2007):

  • Acer Arena (100 percent participation)
  • Australian Consolidated Press (ACP)
  • carsales.com.au (50.6 percent stake)
  • myhome.com.au (48.75 percent participation)
  • NBN Television
  • Nine Network
    • TCN-9 Sydney
    • GTV-9 Melbourne
    • QTQ-9 Brisbane
    • NTD-8 Darwin
    • NineMSN (50 percent participation)
  • Sky News Australia (33 percent participation)
  • Ticketek (100 percent participation)

PBL Enterprises

  • Foxtel (25 percent stake)
  • Hoyts Cinemas (50 percent stake)
  • Premier Media Group (50 percent stake)
  • Seek Limited (25 percent stake)

Other investments (gambling)

  • Burswood Entertainment Complex, Perth
  • City of Dreams, Macau
  • Crown Casino, Macau
  • Crown Casino, Melbourne

Former holdings

  • Participation in EM-TV, Papua New Guinea
  • Stake in Prime Television, New Zealand (50 percent); Sold to Sky Network Television in 2006

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ dfat.gov.au: "Macau Brief" - January 2007 . Australian Government - Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. January 2007. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 31, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dfat.gov.au
  2. ↑ pbl.com.au: PBL announces split into separately listed gaming and media companies (PDF) Publishing and Broadcasting Limited. May 8, 2007. Archived from the original on October 31, 2008. Retrieved July 6, 2007.
  3. ↑ http://www.pbl.com.au/reorganisation_and_implementation_of_demerger.htm
  4. ↑ PBL press release (June 1, 2007): PDF
  5. ↑ PBL press release (May 8, 2007): PDF