- Publishing and Broadcasting Limited
] Frank Packer was chairman of ACP from 1936 until his death in 1974, when control of the company passed to his younger son
Kerry Packer .ACP was granted a broadcasting license in Sydney when television began in Australia in the 1950s. Its television station,
TCN-9 in Sydney was the first station in Australia to go to air, launched1956 , by an announcement fromBruce Gyngell "Good evening, and welcome to television".In
1960 , it purchased GTV-9 Melbourne to form the first television network in Australia, the National Television Network, later to become theNine Network .In
1987 , Kerry Packer sold the Nine Network to Alan Bond, who then expanded the network to include QTQ-9 Brisbane andSTW-9 Perth. Packer later bought the network back for half of what he sold it for in1990 .Publishing and Broadcasting Limited was formed in
1994 , from the merger of The Nine Network Australia and Australian Consolidated Press.In the late 1990s PBL lost millions on a venture called
Nine India . Its most tangible form was a branded block on two of the channels operated byDoordarshan . It planned to become a major player in Indian television, but by early in the next decade, the concept was dropped.In
1999 , Crown Limited was merged into PBL, and the online division of PBL,ecorp was floated on the ASX. ecorp was later privatised and delisted from the Stock Exchange.In 2002, PBL entered a deal with Prime Television, giving it an effective 50% stake in Prime NZ.
In 2004, PBL purchased the Burswood Casino in Perth, and a 50% stake in Hoyts Cinemas, along with
West Australian Newspapers . Hoyts was previously owned by the Packer private company; Conslidated Press Holdings Ltd. It also soldPapua New Guinea 's only television network,EM-TV toFiji Television .On
October 18 2006 , James Packer announced the sell-off of 50% of PBL's media interests for A$4.5 billion to focus on its gambling business. The sell-off includesNine Network and its 50 per cent interest inNineMSN .PBL is currently involved in two casino projects in
Macau : the $260 million Crown Macau, scheduled for completion in 2006-07, and the $1.4 billion City of Dreams. The projects are joint ventures with Melco, a Macau company. In March 2006, PBL announced that it had spent US$900 million (A$1.2 billion) to purchase a casino sub-concession from Wynn Resorts that would give the Melco-PBL joint venture the right to conduct casino operations. PBL's commitment to these ventures is the biggest investment by an Australian company in the PRC to date [cite web | last = dfat.gov.au | title = Macau Brief - January 2007 | publisher = Australian Government - Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade | month = January | year = 2007 | url = http://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/macau/macau_brief.html] .References
External links
* [http://www.pbl.com.au/ Publishing and Broadcasting Limited]
* [http://www.acp.com.au/ Australian Consolidated Press]
* [http://www.ketupa.net/packer.htm Profile of Kerry Packer's interests]
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