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Australia Network, Can Murdoch get his hands on it?
I like Australia network, so a news story today grabbed my attention. Australia NEtwork is described on wikipedia as
So in connection with this latest tender process, the Sydney Morning Herals reports todayAustralia Network, originally Australia Television International and later ABC Asia Pacific, is a free-to-air international satellite television service operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for the last 5 years.[2] The television and online service broadcasts 24 hours a day on 7 days a week, to approximately 44 countries in Asia, the Pacific and the Indian sub-continent. The channel broadcasts a mix of programming, including news and current affairs, English-language learning programs, international documentaries, lifestyle, drama, sports and children's programming. The current channel operating rights is due to be opened to a tender, with the incumbent ABC, and private channel operators competing for the rights.
The full story is at Sky TV | Rupert Murdoch | Government intervenes in overseas tenderTHE Gillard government has made an extraordinary intervention in an official tender process to stop Sky News Australia, partly owned by Rupert Murdoch, winning a $223 million contract to broadcast Australia's overseas television service.
An aggressive bid to expand Australia's presence in China helped push Sky News over the line in a fierce contest with the ABC to win the rights to the station, known as Australia Network.
An independent panel of public servants set up to evaluate the competing tenders saw Sky as the better bid - only for the government to baulk at stripping the contract from the publicly funded ABC to hand it to a company part-owned by News Ltd, Channel Seven and the Nine Network.
Read more: Sky TV | Rupert Murdoch | Government intervenes in overseas tender
I watch the AFL and news from time to time but that is about all. The ads for aussie property drive me insane. I understand the need for advertising, but surely they can get a wider variety of sponsors.
I can't really imagine anyone else other than a few homesick Aussies watching the channel.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat drinking beer all day.
It is refreshing to see that even the Ozzies think Rupe the Poop is also a real shit. What are the rest of us to think - at the moment he's trying to take over BSkyB here in the UK Rupe the Poop 2 already runs it and his pa wants the rest...
I guess the world is just too small for these guys - wish they would go somewhere else, don't you?
As long as they keep the AFL l'm happy.As for the ads they make me laugh too
Sorry Motormouth. Current plans are that the AFL telecasts will soon cease on the Australian network.
Not before Friday i hope, wanna see west coast flog catsOriginally Posted by no.idea
I couldn't agree more Markit........I doubt the British government will let him take complete control BskyB now....this man needs to stripped of all media ownership.
It's kind of interesting following the development of News Corp, since Ron posted this thread. It could be a while before Murdoch gets government approval for anything.
I think the AFL and the news are the only thing carrying the network. If they get rid of the AFL, I don't think it leaves much behind. I have noticed some places in Kuta that get satellite television from Perth, so I am sure there are other ways to still get your AFL fix if this does ever happen.Current plans are that the AFL telecasts will soon cease on the Australian network.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat drinking beer all day.
Looks like Rupe the Poop will get US government approval after all!!!
To close his cell door hahaha
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
Tender process for Australia Network operator cancelled
It looks like the government did not like the outcome the tender process was going to produce. In today's Sydney Morning Herald
Full story: Leaks lead minister to cancel TV tenderLeaks lead minister to cancel TV tender
November 8, 2011
"The Australia Network tender process has been compromised" ... Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.
THE Gillard government has terminated the $223 million tender for Australia's overseas television service, a decision which has become embroiled in Labor's leadership manoeuvring, because ''significant leaks'' had fatally compromised the process.
The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, confirmed the Australian Federal Police had been called in to investigate leaks about the controversial Australia Network tender.
The most recent was in The Australian newspaper, which claimed the four-person expert panel looking at competing tender bids had twice found in favour of the Sky Network, part-owned by News Limited.
In a statement, Senator Conroy said cabinet would decide on ''long term arrangements'' for the service by March, leaving open the option that the contract would not be re-tendered, but simply awarded by the government, as was the ABC's initial 10-year contract.
The tender, due to be decided last March, is entwined in Labor's leadership struggles because the Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd, was perceived to be favouring Sky over the ABC, before cabinet stripped him of decision-making power on the issue in May.
Senator Conroy said the leaks meant ''the Australia Network tender process has been compromised to such a degree that a fair and equitable outcome may no longer be able to be achieved''.
The deputy Liberal leader, Julia Bishop, called on the Auditor General to examine the process.
The Greens said the Australia Network should never have gone to tender and should not be tendered again.
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