When Pigz Fly

Someone has been buying up a big chunk of Consolidated Media Holdings, a Packer company.  Consolidated Media has stakes in pay TV operator Foxtel, Premier Media Group (Fox Sports) and online jobs portal Seek.

It was revealed recently that Kerry Stokes of the Seven Network was behind the acquisition, accumulating a 19.91% stake in Consolidated Media.  This was enough to re-focus the attention of James Packer to up his stake to combat any potential control issues.

So now that Stokes has just about reached the maximum level without having to declare his plans, what will happen?  Will he gradually increase his stake bi-annually or will he launch a takeover bid?  An interesting one to follow.

The chief of Foxtel, Kim Williams, would like the Government to issue a fourth digital free-to-air license.  Kim has been quoted in the AustralianIT saying that new players should have the opportunity to provide new networks over terrestrial and satellite – he says why not if a good business case exists?

Correct me if I’m wrong (seriously), but could this be an attempt to overcome the anti-siphoning laws, for example…

Foxtel’s FTA channel would have first pick for sporting events – like the other FTAs.  However, Foxtel a company that’s cash rich (i.e. Newscorp) has a good chance to negotiate great contracts with the possibility of exclusive deals.

So, great (exclusive) content, high advertising revenue = a good business case?

Then, what’s to stop them rebroadcasting on the Foxtel platform with a few extra bells and whistles in terms of extra content and interactive features.

Let’s face it, they need to do something about TEN’s channel ONE, TiVO, FreeView etc etc.  Can this be one approach?

Don’t know, just thinking out loud.

Any thoughts?