0/5

Report: Seven explored merger talks with ViacomCBS

Was Australia staring at a future of just two commercial FTA networks?

A rather surprising story is in the press today which claims Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes held talks with ViacomCBS about merging the network with 10 (not even something I could dream up for April Fool’s Day).

The Sydney Morning Herald suggests talks with ViacomCBS boss Bob Bakish began in April but have since concluded.

Both men, who had “at least one meeting,” have known each other for more than a decade. A brief proposal summarising what a merged company might look like was reportedly put together by investment bank Goldman Sachs.

One hurdle to such a proposal would be media ownership laws which prohibit two television companies being owned by one entity.

If a merger was announced, it would also be subject to regulatory approvals and there is no guarantee the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would have allowed the deal to go ahead.

But the talks may hint that Kerry Stokes, 80, is looking to wind back on his media interests, which also include the West Australian. The Seven group, under CEO James Warburton, has also been driving down debt from the sale of other assets, with more including Seven Studios and a share of TX Australia under consideration, and a potential merger with Prime.

Seven and ViacomCBS both declined to comment.

19 Responses

  1. Kerry Stokes selling off his media interests? No prizes for guessing who he will sell them to. You only have to look at his newspaper The West Australian which is an exact clone of the Daily Telegraph even down to the headline fonts and the straplines.

  2. The viewers have left in droves. Australia would be better off with 2 commercial networks plus ABC, SBS and a community Channel 31. I only tune into ABC and netflix. The Multi Channels offer very little too and should be limited

  3. Depends on what is meant by “merge”. 7 & 9 have already ‘merged’ their playout centres into NPC in Sydney. Their transmission towers etc. are already ‘merged’ into joint ownership. ABC and WIN in Hobart have ‘merged’ into one facility. In the USA many markets are seeing two stations ‘merging’ into one facility but remaining separate. In Hawaii three major network stations have ‘merged’ into one facility but remain independent, whilst sharing (“merging”) news and production resources.

  4. If it’s true, it doesn’t get any more desperate. Much more like Nine’s newspapers attempting to destabilise their competition.
    Viacom / CBS are already talking about reducing Ten’s costs by 10-15% per year, which doesn’t suggest they are optimistic about their Oz experiment. So I doubt they would even consider double down on another struggling network, and take on $500m of debt in the process.
    Not to mention the deal would need to get through the ACCC (remember they almost shut down the Pac Mags / Bauer buyout in a much smaller market seg), and upend fundamental media laws.
    Unless already spurned by every other potential buyer out there, Ten would be the last door you would knock on.
    But

    1. do you mean when CanWest bought Ten out of receivership? They focused Ten towards a younger demographic and the network thrived when they took over, Ten became the most profitable network even if still rated in third place behind 7 and 9.

      Interesting to hear talk of Seven combining with Ten. This was also talked about the last time Ten went in receivership in the late 1980s. There was also talk of Kerry Packer turning 10 into a secondary Nine channel to avoid it disappearing completely. Gladly neither of these took place but 30 years on, in a shrinking market, maybe something like that has some merit.

    1. Out of those three mentioned Universal/Comcast might be worth a small wager. Deep pockets, own NBC in States and Sky in Europe so still interested in more traditional and pay TV. Would they be keen though? Seven has a long-standing news syndication link with NBC News, though probably means little in this context. Disney owns ABC and lots of other things in the States of course.
      As others have noted, Seven’s mega-debt pile is a massive issue. The debt was re-financed in recent months according to press reports, but despite Warburton making some punchy moves since he came back and driving the debt numbers down a bit paying off the rest can’t be put off indefinitely… a sale or merger would probably do the trick though. Hmmmm, interesting!

  5. It is quite obvious that the “elephant in the room” is SWM debt. Even if current assets are sold, it would leave the company in a vulnerable position of a potential takeover. Correct me if I am wrong but didn’t Stokes private equity firm have a stake in the old TEN ?????

  6. Intriguing and when you consider that ViacomCBS Networks UK & Australia own Channel 5 in the UK and they have both Neighbours and Home and Away on could have lead to an interesting shuffle of shows between Seven and 10 (H&A to Peach say before/after Neighbours). Also imagine the bid for the AFL next go around, could have gone with shared Games on 10 and Seven, Cricket similar Big Bash may have ended up on 10 as it had a good reputation with it, so many possible scenario’s could have happened.

  7. 10 is a disgrace as a national FTA broadcaster…the merger with CBS didn’t improve things..

    Would have been interesting if this proposed merger went ahead

      1. Perhaps he’s referring to the content ,I know I find it lacklustre sometimes and they really over do their encores replays alot more than other network’s ,is their hope for better shows or are they just content where they are for now.

    1. I don’t think it’s a disgrace. I easily watch Ten more than any of the other networks. ABC would be my 2nd most watched. In fact apart from the AFLGF I could not remember the last time I watched anything on Channel 7.

Leave a Reply