Network Ten’s majority owner CanWest is refusing to confirm or deny a report that the company is trying to sell its share of the Australian media network to local investors. CanWest, which owns 56.6% of Ten, is battling to pay debts of $3.7 billion (A$4.4 billion) and has informally started marketing its shares in the Australian TV and outdoor business to potential buyers in Australia, according to a report in The Australian Financial Review. CanWest is understood to have approached existing shareholders Commonwealth Bank, 452 Capital and Ten’s second largest shareholder Birketu.
Retail chain, The Good Guys, is the latest outlet to join the list of TiVo retailers. Hybrid Television Services, a division of Seven Media Group and the licensee of TiVo in Australia and New Zealand, announced that The Good Guys will join the existing retailers of the personal digital recorder including Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, Dick Smith Electronics and David Jones. The media device will be available in The Good Guys stores nationally from late March for RRP $699.
The second season of ABC’s The Gruen Transfer features a new weekly segment, exclusive to the online audience of the show’s website. The new segment, “God I hate this ad” show’s host Wil Anderson expressing his dislike of an ad to the panelist, who must then defend the offending advertisement. The online audience is then invited to share their own “God I hate this ad” examples which may be used by Anderson in future episodes.
