Nine Entertainment (registered as Nine Entertainment Co. Holdings Ltd) is an Australian publicly listed mass media company with holdings in radio and television broadcasting, publishing and digital media. It uses Nine as its corporate branding and also prefers this usage to be used for the parent company.
The entity is largely a successor to the former Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL), which was established by the Packer family. The Packers officially ended their involvement with the company in 2008 and its name was changed to Nine in 2010. The company merged with Fairfax Media in December 2018, expanding its brands and investments across television, video on demand, print, digital, radio and real estate classifieds.
Nine's assets include the Nine Network, Nine Radio; major newspaper mastheads such as The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review; digital properties such as nine.com.au, 9Honey, Pedestrian; video-on-demand platform Stan; and a majority investment in real estate web portal Domain Group.
History
The company was a successor of the long-established Australian media group Australian Consolidated Press (ACP), created by Sir Frank Packer, whose Channel 9 was Australia's first commercial TV network. Kerry Packer inherited the company after his father's death in 1974. ACP was combined with the Nine Network in 1994 as Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd (PBL).
PBL Media
Under a split of PBL into two companies, after Kerry Packer's death in 2005, PBL Media, formerly held by PBL, was transferred to Consolidated Media Holdings (CMH).
PBL Media was established in October 2006, when PBL transferred its media interests, including the ACP Magazines, Nine Network, and ninemsn, to the new business - a joint venture between PBL and CVC Asia Pacific. The recapitalisation was announced on 18 October 2006.
In June 2007, PBL announced that it would sell a further 25% to CVC Capital Partners for $515 million. In September 2007, it was announced that the transaction was to go ahead at the increased purchase price of approximately $526 million.
On 27 October 2008, James Packer and CMH representatives, such as Alexander, resigned from the board of PBL Media, effectively ending financial backing and future associations with the company. James Packer later sold his media interests.
Nine Entertainment
From 2 December 2010, PBL Media rebranded as Nine Entertainment Company In December 2011 former McDonald's Australia chief executive Peter Bush was appointed chairman following the resignation of Tim Parker. In February 2013 David Haslingden, previously President and Chief Operating Officer of Fox Networks Group, was appointed to the Board as an independent non-executive director and chairman.
In December 2013, Nine Entertainment listed on the ASX, trading as . Vendors included Apollo Global Management, Oaktree Capital and Goldman Sachs who took over from CVC in a refinancing deal in October 2012.
In 2014, Nine Entertainment Co. founded online streaming company Stan with Fairfax Media, investing $50 million into the joint venture.
On 16 April 2015, Nine Entertainment Co. announced the sale of its Nine Live business to Affinity Equity Partners for $640 million to reduce debt and fund an ongoing capital management program. In October 2015, the WIN Corporation purchased a 14% stake in Nine Entertainment Co. from investment fund operator Apollo.
Hugh Marks (2015–2020) In November 2015, Hugh Marks was appointed as CEO. He replaced David Gyngell, who remained on the board. In February 2016, Peter Costello was appointed chairman.
In March 2016, Nine Entertainment Co purchased a 9.9% stake in Southern Cross Media Group from the Macquarie Group. On 29 April 2016, Nine Entertainment Co. ended a 27-year affiliation agreement with WIN Corporation, instead partnering with Southern Cross Austereo in parts of regional Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, after securing a 50% revenue sharing deal with Southern Cross, which is higher than its existing 39% deal with WIN. Nine sold its stake in the business in September.
On 26 July 2018, Nine Entertainment Co. and Fairfax Media announced they agreed on terms for a merger between the two companies to become Australia's largest media company. As a result of the merger, Nine shareholders own 51.1 percent of the combined entity and Fairfax shareholders own 48.9 percent. After the merger between Nine Entertainment Co and Fairfax Media in December 2018, WIN Corporation's stake was diluted to 7.76% but later increased to 15.24% in January 2018. In September 2018, it was announced that WIN Corporation's overall economic interest had grown to 25%.