Packer admirer turning the tables

WIN Television boss Bruce Gordon has often talked of his admiration for the late Kerry Packer as a television programmer. Packer, he has said, was the "only person I look up to as a great student of television programming".

WIN Television boss Bruce Gordon has often talked of his admiration for the late Kerry Packer as a television programmer. Packer, he has said, was the "only person I look up to as a great student of television programming".

It is ironic, then, that Gordon is now taking on PBL Media - the joint-venture vehicle with private equity firm CVC Asia Pacific - that now holds the senior Packer's beloved Nine Network.

Now the billionaire regional television owner - who refers to himself as WIN's "PBO", or "poor bloody owner" - is looking at the possibility of becoming much more heavily involved in WIN's programming himself.

Gordon told The Australian that he was examining the prospect of becoming the country's first regional network to source its own programming - rather than relying on affiliation agreements. "We're not playing games here," he says. "We're running a television network."

Gordon's plans come in the context of wider expansion plans for his WIN media empire, which is likely to see him grow WIN either through a sharemarket float or private funding, and takeover battles with PBL Media.

One media analyst says any WIN move to source its own programming would be logical given Nine's somewhat diminished ratings performance.

"For however many years, regional affiliates have piggy-backed on the success of Channel 9 content. Now that content is no longer delivering the audience - and therefore advertising revenue - someone of Gordon's connections may be considering sourcing better content elsewhere."

At the heart of the matter is protracted negotiations with PBL Media over the proportion of WIN's gross revenue that is being charged for the right to screen Nine's programming in regional areas.

These negotiations come in the context of WIN's ongoing $163.2 million bid for Perth's Channel 9, and a likely further similar-sized bid for Newcastle's NBN.

Gordon claims he is being asked to pay substantially more - up to 50 per cent of WIN's gross revenues - for Nine's programming when WIN's affiliation agreement with the network ends in June.

Gordon now says he is willing to use the contacts he made during more than three decades at Paramount, and his 28 years of experience as an Australian television proprietor, to source programming himself.

"I spent 35 years at Paramount, distributing television content to 119 countries around the world," Gordon says. "I was president of international television sales, and I sold the programs to Australia - everything from the Untouchables to Mission Impossible and Happy Days. The major movies - we had them all. We know a little bit about television."

Gordon's first move in the direction of life without an affiliation agreement with Nine appears to have been to drop daytime show The Catch Up, whose stars include Libby Gore and Lisa Oldfield.

Nine had previously used The Catch Up's 1pm, Monday-to-Friday slot, to replace the longstanding US soapie, The Young and the Restless - which now features on Foxtel's W channel.

Gordon says that on WIN, this decision was not well received. "It may be a corny old soap opera, but we've had 5000 complaint calls from viewers, and also calls from the advertisers, who have been advertising in that spot for years," he says.

Of The Catch Up, Gordon says that it was "so bad, we've replaced it". Now running in its place on the WIN network are repeats of the Nine Network lifestyle program What's Good for You.

It is understood that since The Young and the Restless went to Foxtel - part owned by News Limited, publisher of The Australian - it has been a significant subscription driver.

WIN is also believed to be unhappy with the disappearance of other longstanding shows, including The Late Show with David Letterman, the US Masters golf tournament and Dr Phil.

If a compromise cannot be reached on WIN's affiliation agreement with Nine, Gordon says he is ready to source his own programming.

He says: "We can buy new programming, when new programming becomes available in America. We would be competing with the other buyers from Australia, including the ABC and SBS."

One senior broking firm media analyst said last night that Gordon will have to find international distributors with available content. "He needs to go and knock on doors, to find what mainstream prime time content is available, and not locked up on contract with Seven, Nine and Ten," the analyst said.

Gordon also stressed yesterday that WIN also has the ability to produce local programming: it owns the venerable Australian production house, Crawfords, famous for producing longstanding shows like The Sullivans and The Flying Doctors.

One area of interest would be what WIN would do with its news and current affairs content.

One analyst says: "A cornerstone of his prime time schedule would have to be news and current affairs."

WIN would be unlikely to run a regional version of A Current Affair or Today Tonight, and the analyst believes this would be no great loss.

A further source of programming may be Gordon's satellite pay-television operation, SelecTV.

"It has all kinds of rights, and some of those rights can be extended (to free-to-air television)."