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overview
This
profile considers Australian broadcast and production
group Southern Cross.
It
covers -
introduction
TEN Network and Seven Network
affiliate Southern Cross (SCB)
owns and operates commercial radio and television stations
throughout Australia. In 2004 it acquired production house
Southern Star.
Southern
Cross has a 30.5% stake in ntlT which plans to provide
a telecommunications network along the east coast from
Cairns to Hobart, offering infrastructure to all three
major regional commercial television broadcasters and
(through a 50:50 joint venture with SP Telecommunications)
to provide telecommunication services to the corporate
and government sectors in regional centres from Melbourne
to Cairns.
The dominant shareholders as at December 2006 were Macquarie
Media (which paid $165m for a 13.8% stake in 2006) and
the Asper-controlled Ten
Group Ltd (14%).
In July 2007 Macquarie Media
and Fairfax Media announced
a joint $1.35 billion acquisition of Southern Cross Broadcasting.
The expectation was that Macquarie Media would buy Southern
Cross for its Channel Ten affiliate
stations (in regional Queensland, NSW and Victoria) and
Seven Network affiliates in Darwin
and Tasmania. Macquarie would on-sell to Fairfax the Southern
Cross metropolitan radio operations (including the 2UE
and 3AW talkback stations plus talkback and music stations
in Brisbane and Perth).
the network
As of June 2007 Southern Cross had one capital (Canberra)
and four regional television broadcast licences in 1999.
In 2001 it acquired Telecasters Australia Ltd (owner of
Ten Queensland, Ten Northern NSW, Seven Darwin, Seven
Central and Telecasters Communications)
It also controls six metropolitan radio licences and Sky
Radio. The latter was acquired in 2001 (along with radio
talkback stations 2UE and 4BC) from the Lamb family's
Broadcast Investment Holdings Pty Ltd for $90 million.
Its Southern Cross Tricom owns and operates an audiotext
licence to deliver premium rate audio information via
the Telstra network and provides audiotext services to
the group's television and radio stations. Southern Cross
Syndication offers program content to 161 radio stations.
The group's Telecasters Communications subsidiary has
a microwave network from Toowoomba via Brisbane to Cairns.
In 2007 WIN agreed to buy Adelaide's
Channel 9 from Southern Cross Broadcasting for $105 million.
Southern Cross had acquired the station in 1998 for $97.5
million.
Southern Star
The
Southern Star production group, acquired in 2004 for around
$100 million, is concerned with film/video production,
distribution and merchandising.
It
was initially established as the Taft-Hardie Group , being
rebadged in 1988 after an $11 million management buyout
led by Neil Balnaves. Taft-Hardie was a joint venture
of interests controlled by the US Taft
family (centred on the Hanna Barbera cartoon production
studio) and asbestos products manufacturer James Hardie
Industries (at that time expanding into publishing). The
latter's interests centred on the Paul Hamlyn group, which
had acquired 51% of Hanna Barbera Australia in 1974.
As
of 2002 Southern Star comprised seven operating units
including a distribution arm, Australian merchandising
operations for the BBC and Colombia Tri-Star, documentary
film operations and an associated image library, a Los
Angeles-based animation unit, tape and disk duplication
(sold that year) and a home video arm.
Its
Southern Star Entertainment provides corporate support
for established independent producers, notably -
Errol
Sullivan - Southern Star Sullivan
Hal
McElroy - Southern Star McElroy
Steve
Luby and Mark Ruse - Southern Star Ruby
Sandra Levy and John Edwards - Southern Star Xanadu
and
for joint ventures with offshore partners such as Endemol.
The
production arms operate as partnerships, with Southern
Star servicing all running costs, salaries, administration
and publicity. The group has engaged in major co-productions
with the BBC and ABC.
holdings
Australian television stations include -
Channel Nine Adelaide [in principle sale in 2007]
Southern Cross Ten Queensland
Southern Cross Ten Northern NSW
Southern Cross Ten Southern NSW and ACT (inc Canberra
Ten capital city station)
Southern Cross Ten Victoria
Southern Cross Television Tasmania
Spencer Gulf Telecasters South Australia
Southern Cross Central
Southern Cross Darwin
Radio
stations include -
2UE
- Sydney
3AW - Melbourne
Magic 693 - Melbourne
4BC - Brisbane
4BH - Brisbane
6PR - Perth
96FM - Perth
Sky Radio
Other
holdings include -
- Southern
Star (inc numerous joint ventures such as Southern Star
Endemol)
- Southern
Cross Media Sales
- Southern
Cross Syndication
- Tricom
Group
- Telecasters
Communications
- 30.5%
stake in NTL-controlled digital
television and network services group ntl Telecommunications
Pty Ltd
studies
There
has been no major study of Southern Cross or Southern
Star. Perspectives are offered in works on Australian
television highlighted in the Asper
and Murdoch profiles on this
site.
A
celebratory view of Hardie is provided in 'A Very
Good Business': One Hundred Years Of James Hardie Industries
Ltd 1888-1988 (Sydney: James Hardie Industries 1990)
by Brian Carroll, predating the group's asbestos litigation
and controversial move offshore.
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