Nine chairman Peter Costello says the media company’s board is united behind new chief executive Mike Sneesby and did not split along the old Nine-Fairfax lines on the appointment, as tensions between former directors of the two legacy businesses continue to bubble.

Mr Costello said Mr Sneesby had the full support of the board as the new chief executive, and was “well placed to continue to drive Nine’s transformation as a digitally led business”. He praised Ms Sneesby’s success in building up Stan – the Nine business unit he has run for the past 7½ years – as the top Australian streaming platform.