Ten Network Holdings Ltd, commonly referred as Paramount Australia & New Zealand, is a major media company in Australia. Headquartered in Sydney, its major asset is Network 10, a free-to-air television network. Formerly a public company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, since December 2019, it has been a subsidiary of Paramount Networks UK & Australia.
Assets
While originally focusing on running a television network, Ten has recently diversified into a range of other media areas over the past decade. Below are some of the businesses it has run, or is involved with:
Network 10 is an Australian commercial free-to-air television primary channel
Sydney
Melbourne
Brisbane
Adelaide
Perth
10 HD is an Australian free-to-air HD digital television multichannel using the primary channel simulcast. 10 Bold is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel dramatic programming aimed towards viewers over 40. 10 Peach is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel featuring comedy, sitcoms and some drama programs. Nickelodeon is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel which includes a mix of shows for people under 40. 10Play a video on demand, catch-up TV service which carries the main and multichannels of Network 10. Gecko is an Australian free-to-air datacasting channel Multi Channel Network (25%)
History
Pre-1998
In April 1987, News Corporation finalised an $842 million deal to sell its Network Ten Sydney and Melbourne stations to NRN and GWN7 owner Northern Star Holdings, an associate of Frank Lowy's Westfield Capital Corporation. The Ten Adelaide, Perth and Canberra stations were then purchased in August 1987 from Kerry Stokes.
In September 1989, following nine months of discussions, Westfield finally got its exit out of television by selling its shareholding of Northern Star Holdings to Broadcom and a consortium of bankers for an eye-watering $450 million loss. Signalling the cash flows problems incurred by the network at the time, MCA, now NBCUniversal, took the company to court over unpaid program supply fees. Broadcom then onsold the Adelaide, Perth and Canberra stations to Charles Curran's Capital Television Holdings for $185 million. Broadcom then anticipated that through cutbacks in programming and operational costs, it would be able to achieve profitability by the end of financial year 1991/92.
Ernst & Young receivers were subsequently appointed to take over Northern Star in September 1990. In late 1991, Westpac bank took control of the East Coast capital city stations in a $240 million sale.
On 30 December 1992, Network Ten was sold by the bank to Oltec Limited. Controlled by Canadian media company CanWest, minority shareholders included Telecasters North Queensland, Jack Cowin, John Singleton and Liebler Media. CanWest also had a minority shareholding in New Zealand broadcaster TV3 at this time. Oltec changed its name to the Ten Group Limited in April 1993.
In November 1993, Ten Group Limited purchased a 50% shareholding in Capital Television Holdings. In 1995, controlling shareholder Curran sold the Canberra station to Southern Cross Broadcasting after initial court action by Ten Group Limited to stop the transaction in an effort to protect their existing program supply agreement which followed court action by Capital alleging that CanWest had breached legislation on foreign ownership restrictions.
Due to foreign ownership restrictions, CanWest was restricted in the amount of Ten that it could own. In June 1994, Telecasters North Queensland was recorded with the largest voting stake in Ten Group Limited with 40%, while CanWest had 15% and AMP Limited 5%.
Establishment and relationship with The Ten Group
Ten Network Holdings (TNH) was established in 1998, launched as a public company on the ASX holding the Network Ten assets. It allowed shareholders to invest in The Ten Group Pty Ltd, the owner of the Ten television network. TNH had a 79% shareholding in The Ten Group, representing a 39% economic interest in the group. Canwest had a 58% economic interest in The Ten Group and was the Group's other major owner. In June 2007, Canwest decided to convert its stake in The Ten Group into shares in Ten Network Holdings, giving it a 56% shareholding in TNH. This saw TNH take 99% ownership of The Ten Group and become the central company in Ten's corporate structure. In February 2008, the other shareholders in The Ten Group exchanged their shares in that company for shares in TNH, giving TNH 100% ownership of The Ten Group.