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US output deals at the centre of TEN negotiations

Conflicting reports over whether CBS or 20th Century FOX dragged their feet in meetings with TEN.

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There have been conflicting reports over whether either CBS or 20th Century FOX dragged their feet in meetings with TEN as it sought to renegotiate output deals prior to entering administration this week.

The Australian Financial Review reported TEN management had renegotiated its contract with CBS, but was not formally signed.

Reports suggest it had failed to do so with 21st Century FOX, of which Lachlan Murdoch is executive chairman.

“The CBS deal was done,” a person involved said. “FOX was dragging its feet all the way.” One article suggested a FOX US contact was unreachable in the crucial hours leading up to administration.

But other sources do not agree with that account, with suggestions deals with TEN were agreed in principle.

Whilst CBS regard TEN as a loyal customer and were willing to cut the network a break to keep it afloat, FOX agreed to a replacement deal for TEN one hour after the company was put into administration.

CBS owns a third of ELEVEN, with the other two-thirds owned by TEN. CBS is preparing to appoint an adviser for negotiations to protect its joint venture.

The joint venture has not issued a dividend to either TEN or CBS since the 2015-16 financial year, when it paid $5.1m to TEN and $2.5m to CBS.

TEN’s US output deals are valued at around $150m.

Media reports speculate that either Lachlan Murdoch, Bruce Gordon, News Corp or Foxtel will wind up owning the network.

Source: AFR, The Australian

22 Responses

  1. Hasn’t this all happened before like 15yrs ago? Didn’t channel 7 also go into receivership at that time? If that’s true then both came back strong and Ten can come back strong too but needs to fix some things.

  2. As a big supporter of the Dragons, I will be disappointed if Gordon ends up buying Ten, as he has been in negotiations with the Dragons to buy them for many years and has really strung them along.

    I would assume buying one means he will not buy the other.

  3. I always find it hilarious when people complain that the A.B.C is run by labor/greens.Do they follow the news at all?The A.B.C board is controlled by LIberal party flunkies and supporters appointed by Liberal governements over the years.Hardly a bastion of left wingism..

    2. “The A.B.C board is controlled by LIberal party flunkies” You made me laugh. The Liberals themselves accuse the ABC of being biased.Some Liberals have refused to appear on Q & A as they say its is too left wing.

      1. Libs appear every week on Q&A so there are plenty that see the value in public debate. Turnbull Govt appoints ABC board members, including the most recent appointees who were not on the final list of recommendations put forward by the Nomination Panel.

    1. At $100+ “available only on DVD” WIN is not making their library available to FTA. They ran a few seasons on WIN but was really only to promote the DVDs.

  8. Imagine if Bruce Gordon comes out owning TEN and the media reforms go his way, as it was only last year he lost his court case against Nine over 9Now. Which ended up with Nine signing an affiliation deal with Southern Cross Austereo and his WIN switch to TEN after a 27-year partnership with Nine and that was only in May last year. With of course this year on May 31st Southern Cross Austereo selling NRN in Northern NSW to WIN in exchange for WIN radio in Wollongong and 55 million, yep what a year it’s been for Bruce Gordon since that loss over 9Now.

    Thing that makes me wonder now is though, Bruce Gordon is still a major shareholder in Nine with 14.99 per cent (*as of March last year), if he does end up owning TEN, will he sell off his shares in Nine and where will that then leave Nine. This is such an intriguing story right now and I wonder if we will one day see a bio about Gordon…

    1. “WIN in exchange for WIN radio in Wollongong”. No, i98FM was not part of the deal. WIN still owns their two radio stations.
      http://tvtonight.com.au/2017/03/win-buys-northern-nsw-tv-from-southern-cross.html
      Bruce Gordon started out as a magician some 60-70 years ago. Used his magic later to take WIN from a bankrupt southern NSW station to a national network (with Rupert’s help in taking WIN out of bankruptcy, buying it a VCR so they could play NWS9 programs, in the days when all stations made their own programs), and if anyone is going to save TEN it will be BG, not the younger Murdoch. Both Gordon & Murdoch have signed an agreement re their shareholdings in TEN. TEN needs Gordon at the helm, not Murdoch again, who was a disaster.

      1. Thanks for that clarification somehow missed that was taken off the rails and that article here.

        Also yeah, be much better if Gordon does take over, reality is he should have been already, personally I feel he’s positioned himself well. That is why I think there’s more to this than just Murdock running TEN into the ground to snap it up, Gordon was the major shareholder before the merge of shares and let Murdock run it. Perhaps the magician in him has come out again and the old watch this happen while I do this over here known as slight of hand has been at play.

        As I say though will be interesting if he divests himself of his Nine shares. Then I guess if the media reforms go through he can keep Nine while having TEN, to this point he has as majority shareholder of both channels anyway.

  9. If Murdoch gets his grubby hands on 10 it will become a propaganda channel for the Libs. This must not happen. Are there no other billionaires out there that can buy it?

        1. Studio 10, especially Sarah Harris ( and her appeal to politicians), were so pro Murdoch, it was though their auto-cue was written by Lachlan. If Murdoch gets control they will be one of the first shows to go. Pro gay and abortion, oh no, not on Fox Aust.
          A show maybe with Prue MacSween, Miranda Divine, Margaret Court, Pauline Hanson and .Lyle Shelton.

        1. Even though we follow UK English, we use 2 different spellings for Labo(xx). Although it is irony at its best, I can understand that people get confused and spell it as we are referring to a UK political party.

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