‘IT IS difficult to see that there would be a real flurry of activity – but I could be wrong about that.”
She was. Communications Minister Helen Coonan’s prediction of a muted reaction to the changes in ownership rules for Australia’s media proved well wide of the mark.
Less than a week after the laws were passed through Parliament in October, the first mega-media deal was announced – Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd’s $4.5 billion sale of a half share in the Nine Network, ACP Magazines and its Ninemsn joint venture to European private equity group CVC Partners.
The industry has since been swamped by more than $11 billion worth of deals. And a further $6 billion in corporate activity has been flagged, including the sale of Ten Network and potential privatisation of APN News & Media.
The “flurry of activity” surpassed the expectations of even the most bullish of the analysts and commentators, who were urged to have a cold shower by both Senator Coonan and ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel.
And that was just the pre-match entertainment.
The real game begins in the next few months, when it is expected Senator Coonan will set the so-called “proclamation date”, putting the laws into effect. The date will not be set until at least February, when the media regulator finishes setting up its merger register.
But the aim will be to put as many months as possible between proclamation and the Federal election – expected around October – to avoid the distraction of big media mergers during the campaign.
While the proclamation date is the dominant issue for industry executives as they kick into 2007, they will also be preoccupied by a continued shift in advertising dollars to the internet, a tight race in television ratings and the battle of the moguls, both in court and on share registers.
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