Sons of Australia media men to sit on Ten board
SYDNEY — The sons of Australia's biggest media dynasties -- the Murdochs and the Packers -- will sit on the Ten Network board, it said Tuesday, following a lightning share raid…
SYDNEY — The sons of Australia's biggest media dynasties -- the Murdochs and the Packers -- will sit on the Ten Network board, it said Tuesday, following a lightning share raid set to shake up the industry.Ten, one of Australia's three major commercial free-to-air stations, said Lachlan Murdoch and James Packer would join the board in mid-December.Network chairman Nick Falloon would step down "immediately following the 2010 annual general meeting" on December 9, it added."We are pleased Mr Packer and Mr Murdoch have accepted our offer to join the Ten Holdings board and agree that appropriate board protocols will be put in place," Falloon said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange.Packer, a billionaire gaming and pay-TV tycoon who inherited the Nine Network empire from his late father Kerry, became Ten's major shareholder after a 250-million-dollar swoop saw him take an 18 percent stake last month.He is widely reported to be brokering a sale of half the shares to Murdoch, son of News Corporation mega-mogul Rupert Murdoch.Packer's investment in Ten represents his first foray into free-to-air TV since he sold Nine two years ago, while Murdoch has an 8.9 percent stake in the regional Prime television network.Murdoch said he looked forward to collaborating with Ten on its "multi-channel strategies" across the digital spectrum, while Packer said it was "good to be back in the free-to-air television industry"."I am confident in the future of free-to-air and of Network Ten," Packer said.Packer has casino interests in Australia and Macau but his Consolidated Media Holdings also holds a 25 percent stake in pay-TV provider Foxtel and 50 percent of the Fox Sports cable network.News Corp owns the remaining 50 percent of Fox Sports and also holds 25 percent of Foxtel.Packer's raid on Ten is now before Australia's anti-trust watchdog.Ten currently runs a dedicated sports network on its second channel, One HD, providing the only direct competition to Packer and Murdoch's subscriber-only Fox Sports.Ten has promi
last modification 2010-11-09 09:02:42
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