Now Lachlan Murdoch may enter TEN deal
Lachlan Murdoch is looking to join James Packer in his stake of Channel TEN according to News Limited newspapers.
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Lachlan Murdoch is looking to join James Packer in his stake of Channel TEN according to News Limited newspapers. And they oughta know.
Murdoch wants to invest up to $155 million by taking up to half of Packer’s stake, leaving them jointly owning up to 20 per cent of the network.
The two sons of media moguls are good friends, and both invested in the failed One.Tel venture. They even sat together at Foxtel’s 15th birthday bash last weekend.
Last November Murdoch bought half of DMG Radio, owners of Nova and Classic Rock radio. He is said to have long been interested in becoming a player in free-to-air TV. He also wants to prove he is ready to step up to the News Corp helm.
If the proposed move were to proceed, it would reunite Murdoch, 39, and Packer, 43, as business partners 2½ years after they unsuccessfully made a $3.3 billion bid to privatise pay-TV giant Consolidated Media Holdings.
With the support of shareholders such as Bruce Gordon’s WIN Corporation, a possible Packer/Murdoch partnership would have big clout in the network’s future.
Source: Daily Telegraph
24 Responses
its not really about TV rights, TV programming, or anything at all to do with TV. How can these two spend over $100M each on TEN shares…by being good at business (public failing of ONETEL the exception – We all learn by mistakes and these two will have surely done that). They are in it to make money and maybe protect the asset of Foxtel. TEN is already a lean ship and by maybe pumping money into the business, they can turn it into an even bigger business than it already is.
They’re not kids and they’re not unsupervised.
Goes to show it’s just plain foolhardy to let the kids play unsupervised.
@Phillo – cheers however even though Seven and TEN have an iron clad agreement to contractually bid together, word on the grapevine is that it’s rusting pretty quickly. We all know in the corporate world contracts are bought out/ broken at a certain cost – everything and everyone has their price. Remember when Leckie was at Nine and signed away the entire AFL finals to TEN for 2002 – 06 exclusively? Kerry Packer threatened TEN that he would bid a motza for Big Brother if they didn’t share it with Nine (think it was 02). Never eventuated but was one of the contributing factors why Packer Snr gave Leckie his marching orders.
Keep in mind the ego’s of the players involved. If Packer truly wants the rights on his own, he’ll get it. I’m more looking forward to the post-rights fall out and see who scores on the one-upmanship.
@effdee, considering Lachlan and Sarah had their baby daughter Aerin baptised into the Catholic faith this week, I’d say the answer to that is a definite no.
i love the notion you are expecting a media raid to be based on doing good for the viewer and not a cash grab exercise
it’s all about knock one contender for the afl and nrl rights. it’s going to work in the end. but 7 can get both of these rights on it’s own i suppose
I don’t know now which is bigger for these two, their ego or their bank balance
@dturbo – Ten cant lock Seven out of the negotiations for at least the next 5 years. Ten are contractually obliged to bid with Seven in the next round of AFL rights.
What will be interesting is when the government announce their overhaul of the anti-siphoning legislation. The indications thus far is that a program on the anti-siphoning list will be permitted to be broadcast on a digital only channel. If that occurs, the game changes for all the broadcasters and it gives Nine a good upperhand when bidding for the AFL rights.
this is all really sad. this is all about money and tv rights. not about quality programming or an interest in the medium. kerry packer will be turning in his grave
@FJ, Lachlan was born in London and raised in the USA, but he considers himself an Australian. I’d say it is highly likely that he has taken out Australian citizenship, as he has been living and working here since the ’90’s.
Does Murdoch have ties to The Church of Scientology too?
How we’d all love to be a fly on the wall in Packers boardroom. Everyone’s got an opinion – so could I throw my 2 Euro’s into the hat? TEN and Fox Sports will own everything. Having Packer and Murdoch on side will lock Seven and Nine out of both the AFL and NRL rights – no matter how much coin Leckie has in that warchest of his from the KKR sale. Nine doesn’t have the neccesary funds to bankroll without Fox Sports. Watch Packer and Murdoch stick it up to Stokes and Leckie. Amazing how a little under 20% can bring about so much change. Just goes to show how influence can achieve so much authority.
Is Lachlan Murdoch an Australian Citizen?
Ahh twmg said exactly what I was thinking as soon as I saw the headline!
When does rich Jodee Rich appear. Oh that’s right, he rides a bike while the others arrive in driven limos so guess he’s a bit slower getting to the party. Or has he been excommunicated – for the moment? Yes, love the ONE (Tel) analogy.
If it’s the case that they want to keep as much sport as possible on Foxtel and off ONE HD, that’s quite OK by me!!
I don’t want ONE HD to change into being a damned Footy and/or Cricket channel, I watch a lot of what’s on ONE HD, it’s the only chance to watch a lot of it…
I dont think this play by Packer or Murdoch is about canning Ten’s sports ambitions.
Its more about protecting their own interests in the renegotiation of the AFL TV rights at the end of the year.
Packer and/or Murdoch would gain a seat at the Ten board table and would be privvy to the deal that Seven/Ten are contractually obliged to lodge together. Additionally, they would have SOME control about the offer made to Fox Sports for the PayTV rights when/if the Seven/Ten bid was successful.
On the other side of the coin, Nine will bid for the rights with Fox Sports. (which of course means the boys will also be privvy to that deal as well).
The whole scenario gives them a foot in both camps and will mean they will be in a position to drive the best result for themselves regardless of the outcome of the AFL TV rights.
Additionally… there is suggestion that Ten were also looking at the NRL rights as well. This would also give them the same benefits when they are negotiated.
One(HD)Tel(evision)
This should end well….
Just what we needed, more Murdoch owned press!
OneTel anyone?
Channel 10 we hardly knew ya.
This news confirms a common analysis of the Packer move on Ten…The protection of Foxtel and Fox Sports by keeping as much sport as possible off free-to-air and on pay…They want control of Ten to neutralize the ONE HD threat.
This is becoming ridiculous. How many people own all of Australia’s commercial media? About 4? How do we let these people get away with this?
The Australian media is just one big bloody cartel of billionaire mates.