Publishing and Broadcasting Limited
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| Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd | |
 |
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| Type of Company | Public (ASX - PBL) Controlling interest: Consolidated Press Holdings Ltd |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1994 |
| Headquarters |  Sydney, Australia |
| Key people | James Packer, Executive Chairman James Alexander, CEO |
| Industry | Media |
| Products | TV stations Casinos |
| Revenue |  $3.5 billion AUD |
| Employees | 8271 |
| Website | www.pbl.com.au |
Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, or PBL, is one of Australia's major media companies. It is headquartered in Sydney, Australia. The late Kerry Packer, Australia's richest man, was its majority shareholder, through his company Consolidated Press Holdings Ltd.
[edit] Businesses
- PBL Media (50% stake)
- Australian Consolidated Press
- carsales.com.au (41% stake)
- Ninemsn (50% stake)
- Sky News Australia (33% stake)
- Nine Network
- Formerly owned a 50% interest in Prime Television in New Zealand, but sold this in 2006 to Sky Network Television
- Formerly owned a stake in EMTV, Papua New Guinea's main television station.
- Crown Casino, Melbourne
- Burswood Entertainment Complex, Perth
- PBL Enterprises
- Foxtel (25% stake)
- Acer Arena (100% stake)
- Seek (25% stake)
- Ticketek (100% stake)
- Premier Media Group (50% stake)
- Hoyts (50% stake)
[edit] History
Australian Consolidated Press (ACP) was established in 1933. It later acquired a broadcasting license in Sydney when television began in Australia in the 1950's, and this station, TCN-9 Sydney was the first television station in Australia to go to air, launching 1956, with an announcement from Bruce Gyngell "Good evening, and welcome to television".
In 1960, it purchased GTV-9 Melbourne to form the first television network in Australia, the National Television Network - later to become The Nine Network.
In 1987, Kerry Packer sold the Nine Network to Alan Bond, who then expanded the network to include QTQ-9 Brisbane and STW-9 Perth. Packer later bought the network back for half of what he sold it for in 1990.
Publishing and Broadcasting Limited was formed in 1994, from the merger of The Nine Network Australia and Australian Consolidated Press.
During the late 1990's PBL lost millions on a venture called Nine India. It's most tangible form was a branded block on two of the channels operated by Doordarshan. It planned to become a major player in Indian television, but by early in the next decade, the concept was dropped.
In 1999, Crown Limited was merged into PBL, and the online division of PBL, ecorp was floated on the ASX. ecorp was later privatised and delisted from the Stock Exchange.
In 2002, PBL entered a deal with Prime Television, giving it an effective 50% stake in Prime NZ.
In 2004, PBL purchased the Burswood Casino in Perth, and an 50% stake in Hoyts Cinemas, along with West Australian Newspapers. Hoyts was previously owned by the Packer private company; Conslidated Press Holdings Ltd. It also sold Papua New Guinea's only television network, EM-TV to Fiji Television.
On October 18, 2006, James Packer announced the sell-off of 50% of PBL's media interests for A$4.5 billion to focus on its gambling business. The sell-off includes Nine Network and its 50 per cent interest in NineMSN.
PBL is currently involved in two casino projects in Macau: the $260 million Crown Macau, scheduled for completion in 2006-07, and the $1.4 billion City of Dreams. The projects are joint ventures with Melco, a Macau company. In March 2006, PBL announced that it had spent US$900 million (A$1.2 billion) to purchase a casino sub-concession from Wynn Resorts that would give the Melco-PBL joint venture the right to conduct casino operations. PBL's commitment to these ventures is the biggest investment by an Australian company in the PRC to date.[1]
