Conservative news start-up buys Southern Cross local assets

The new owner of Channel 7’s Tasmanian assets has pledged to bolster the station’s local TV news offering.

Australian Digital Holdings chair Maurice Newman.

The new owner of Channel 7’s Tasmanian assets has pledged to bolster the station’s local TV news offering.

Australian Digital Holdings Pty Ltd announced it had signed an agreement to buy 12 television licences across four States from Southern Cross Austereo.

Those include Channel 7 Tasmania in Hobart, Launceston and all regional areas, plus broadcast operations in Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory.

In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange, the company said the sale carried a price tag of $6.35 million, “of which $3.75 million constitutes upfront cash consideration and $2.6 million will be received through the provision of ‘transitional service agreements’”.

Australian Digital Holdings CEO Jack Bulfin said the Tasmanian assets were highly valued.

“7Tasmania (TNT) has a market-leading Nightly News service with newsrooms in Launceston and Hobart that consistently command the highest audience share of any capital city news service.

“The Tasmanian team should be proud of the station’s long and distinguished reputation in being ‘Tasmania’s choice’.

“We aim to expand news coverage across the group.”

Australian Digital Holdings is a three-year-old Sydney-based start-up broadcaster.

Its first host was former radio star Alan Jones, who signed on in 2021.

Its website lists as partners a number of conservative organisations including the Institute for Public Affairs, Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, Family First, CPAC Australia and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.

Australian Digital Holdings chair Maurice Newman said the company brought a commitment to local and regional employment with plans to invest in TV production while making sure local TV stays Australian-owned.

“This is an important day for our company and the future of Tasmanian and regional TV, and it brings a new owner into the Australian media industry at a time of TV industry consolidation,” he said.

“In time, there are plans to restore local news services and make sure that communities in major centres get the coverage of local issues and events they want and deserve.

“These stations are in critical and growing markets that show great audience and economic resilience.”

Southern Cross Media declared a first half net profit of $3.2m on Thursday, up 5.5 per cent. It’s shares closed at 65 cents, down one cent after Thursday’s announcement.

Liberal Senator Jonno Duniam hailed the ADH takeover.

“It is a massive win for our state and our media landscape,” he said.

“We were facing cuts to our news service through no fault of our own. Thankfully, through this acquisition, we will instead see Tasmanian news coverage expanded,” he said.

“Our media landscape will continue to have three nightly bulletins when we were faced with the prospect of two. It will ensure that a variety of viewpoints are heard and will enable even more Tasmanian stories to be told.

“I am very pleased to see this outcome. Every Tasmanian should breathe a sigh of relief that we won’t be getting solely mainland stories on Channel 7, as was potentially an outcome of this process.”

Australian Digital Holdings’ acquisition of the licences, as well as staff working for the business, equipment and existing contracts is subject to customary sale conditions, including regulatory approval.

Originally published as Conservative news start-up buys Southern Cross local assets