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CBS to buy Australian network as testing ground for streaming

CBS Corp. snapped up ailing Australian television broadcaster Ten Network Holdings Ltd., securing an offshore testing ground for its on-demand streaming service. 

Angus Whitley (Bloomberg)
Sydney, Australia
Mon, August 28, 2017

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CBS to buy Australian network as testing ground for streaming A security guard mans the front door of the Channel Ten building in Sydney on August 28, 2017. American broadcaster CBS has secured a deal to buy Australia's third-largest television network, Ten, the embattled station's administrators said on August 28. (Agence France -Presse/William West)

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BS Corp. snapped up ailing Australian television broadcaster Ten Network Holdings Ltd., securing an offshore testing ground for its on-demand streaming service.  

The most-watched US network agreed to buy Sydney-based Ten, which has lost money for five straight years, and provide immediate funds to save it from collapse, the Australian company’s receivers and administrators said Monday in a statement. The planned transaction also sidelines a potential bid from News Corp. Co-Chairman Lachlan Murdoch. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

The New York-based media giant, which airs “The Big Bang Theory” and “NCIS,” plans to introduce CBS All Access in Australia, more than two years after Netflix Inc. started streaming Down Under. Competition from upstarts including Netflix, available in almost 200 countries, is compelling legacy television companies like CBS to offer their own programming to subscribers on-demand via the internet.

CBS will come up against on-demand platforms offered by Ten’s two main free-to-air rivals as well as publicly funded services. While the U.S.-based network is entering a crowded market, Australia could prove to be a useful laboratory as CBS seeks to expand its streaming product outside its home country.

“It’s a nice little testing ground,” said Marc C-Scott, a lecturer in screen media at Victoria University in Melbourne. “There’s clear evidence we want to watch a lot of this content.”

In the U.S., CBS All Access includes a live feed of the TV network as well as on-demand shows. Like Netflix, CBS is also making some original shows for the service and plans to release a new “Star Trek” show on the platform in September. CBS said this month it would take CBS All Access offshore next year, starting with Canada.

In Australia, Ten had crumbled under the cost of buying programs from the U.S. as advertising revenue plunged. The broadcaster, which went into voluntary administration two months ago, was valued at just A$59 million ($47 million) before its stock was suspended from trading in June. The network had also been in the sights of Murdoch and local media mogul Bruce Gordon.

Murdoch and Gordon had been guarantors to Ten’s secured A$200 million facility with Commonwealth Bank of Australia, but backed off from providing further support as Ten sought a fresh loan of about A$250 million.

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