Germany buys our Logie Awards

TV Week Logie Awards will have new owners, Germany’s Bauer Media Group, following the sale of ACP Magazines by Nine Entertainment Co.

Nine yesterday confirmed the sale of 100% of ACP to the German media multinational to help meet company debt. The undisclosed sum is believed to be upwards of $500M.

The sale includes TV Week magazine which owns the rights to Logie Awards, presented annually since 1959.

In 2002 Seven and Nine went to court in a fight over ownership of the Logie Awards. Seven Network-controlled Pacific Publications sold its 50% ownership of TV Week to the Packer-controlled PBL but believed the sale of the masthead did not include the Logies. A court battle ensued with TV Week ruled as owner of the iconic Logies brand.

It is unknown whether Nine’s sale of ACP included any clause about future broadcasts of the Logies, but Bauer will own the industry event once the sale is approved by the Foreign Investment Board.

That could open the way for other networks such as Seven to bid for the broadcast rights.

The Logies were once rotated between commercial networks, last airing on Seven in 1995 and TEN in 1993. They have been seen on Nine for the last 16 years, 15 of them at Crown.

Despite efforts to lure them to Queensland, the Logies were secured at Crown for the next five years in a deal with the Victorian Government in April.

The Logies also cost millions to stage and it also isn’t clear if the new German owners will view the outlay and the return with quite the same affection, especially given that voting has no longer required the purchase of a TV Week magazine.

Nine declined to comment yesterday.