Darwin Digital Television in limbo
Macquarie Media has been ordered to sell its shares of Darwin Digital Television.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
Darwin Digital Television (DDT) is in limbo after the Federal Court ruled its owners would be in breach of national media laws next year.
Macquarie Media has been ordered to sell its shares of Darwin Digital Television (DDT), which broadcasts Channel TEN.
Media laws rule that a person is prohibited to own more than two stations per market.
MacMedia, which also owns Southern Cross, gained temporary approval for the license but the company had to sell the station when the approval expires on January 19, 2009.
The court also ruled the company was owning too many digital stations in Tasmania.
“It’s really important to point out that it doesn’t have an effect on any analogue stations,” MacMedia spokeswoman Karen Halbert said. “In regards to the court outcome, all we can say is we’re considering our options.”
Source: NTNews
3 Responses
Remembering that Nine also has to sell it’s share of DDT, the obvious buyer of the Darwin licence and the 50% of the Tasmania licence is Ten.
I think the likes of Ten Darwin and Ten Tasmania (possibly even Ten SA and Ten Mildura) could all be brought by a single investor.
i think ACMA should ‘please explain’ why it’s made the regulations about the digital-only channels so rigid that a licencee is in breach of them just by taking over an existing operator? Seems that PBL and MMG have both got into strife over these tight restrictions on these new channels.