Nine deal completes national network
Nine Entertainment looks set to have a TV station in all mainland states for the first time in its 57-year history after exercising an option to buy Bruce Gordon’s WIN Corp’s Perth operations.
Nine had acquired the option to buy WIN’s Perth and Adelaide operations, paying $140 million for the Adelaide station last month.
The Australian Financial Review reports today Nine boss David Gyngell told WIN yesterday he’d exercise his Perth option, worth between $180 million and $200 million.
The deal is expected to extend Nine’s audience reach to about 74 per cent of Australia’s population, just below the current allowable 75 per cent threshold.
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Combined, the Perth and Adelaide operations are expected to boost Nine’s earnings to more than $300 million, the Financial Review says.
“Nine is understood to have paid $140 million for Adelaide which generates about $15 million in (pre-tax) earnings,” the report says.
The two deals complete Nine’s national mainland presence.
The network has stations in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and bought the independently owned Channel Eight in Darwin in 1990, re-badging it with the Nine brand in 2003.
