Seven Media Group and CMH could be merged into 1 group

[EGR]

Source

Speculation is also mounting that Consolidated Media and the Seven Media Group could merge. Seven Media Group is 47 per cent owned by Seven Network, which already has two representatives on the Consolidated Media board.

One concept that has been discussed among Seven Media Group and Consolidated Media is the possibility of the merged group then cutting a deal with News Corporation to establish a 50/50 joint venture to deliver a new subscription TV service in Australia to rival Foxtel.

Content would be delivered over a TiVo-type media centre either via a broadband network or Satellite similar to what Foxtel is proposing.

A key benefit to the new Group would be Premier Media, which has the rights to various sporting events around the world. This, coupled with the sporting events that Seven Network and News Corporation could deliver, would make the new service a formidable competitor to both Foxtel and any proposed network that Telstra is able to deliver.

All the Foxtel friends just had a collective heart attack reading that, as its 3rd party independent verification that Foxtel is about to be broken up.

About freaking time.

[digitalj]

What about country areas serviced by Austar?

[dr worm]

what benefit would be there to the average punter of Foxtel being broken up? I wouldn't want it split up all over the place.

[dr worm]

BTW this is the same source that said "TV manufacturers will not support the introduction of Freeview in Australia" smarthouse has been known to make up stories in the past and most of its content is from recycled loo paper.

[mattwinter]

I'm all for competition for Foxtel. If they were to have Fox Sports channels I would be very interested if they could ofter a cheaper service than foxtel. I do hope the government ensures we don't end up with a situation when you either have to go without certain sports events or subscribe to multiple pay-tv services.

[hammer]

I'm all for competeition, i think both Foxtel and Telstra abuse their market power.

However.

I would take slightly higher prices if it means all the content is available through the one provider. I would hate to go back to the bad old days where each provider had some different content like we had in the past.
Foxtel - Fox Sports, Showtime etc
Optus - ESPN/C7, Movie Network etc

[ozyscott]

As long as it had NRL on it, sign me up, I'm sick of foxtels overpriced product

[Hosko]

Originally Posted by EGR

All the Foxtel friends just had a collective heart attack reading that, as its 3rd party independent verification that Foxtel is about to be broken up.

About freaking time.

Or its just positioning from News and CMH who are trying to up their stakes in Foxtel up to 33% each. The broadband delivered option they are talking about is only viable when the NBN is up and running.

There was also talk of Telstra being given a 33% stake in PMG in return of CMH and News upping their stake in Foxtel.

As none of them have a reasonable return on their investment in Foxtel yet I doubt they would want to be setting up a competitor. However it could be defensive play against Telstra and their TBox

I wouldn't be taking anything as Gospel.

[EGR]

While you could interpret the article the way hosko has, the fact is that its come from 3rd party independent news source.

Personally, it was always pretty clear that once Seven got access to pay TV and pay TV content suppliers that CMH and News would rather do business with them than Telstra, even after all the BS that has gone down over the years.

The advent of using non Telstra based systems i.e.: satellite via a non competitor in Optus and a potential National Fibre Network which will be open and not closed, it was only a matter of time that Foxtel would be broken up and banished (should of been done years ago really).

Anyway the new pay TV provider will probably be called SKY Cable (LOL since News and CMH holding company that owns the collective 50% shares in Foxtel is already called Sky cable)

[bacco|007]

Originally Posted by EGR

While you could interpret the article the way hosko has, the fact is that its come from 3rd party independent news source.

I wouldnt say that the source is exactly trustworthy though.