| Company Information
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| Official name: Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd
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| Stock Symbol: PBL
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| Stock Exchange(s): ASX
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| Executive Chairman: James Packer
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| CEO: James Alexander
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| Number of Employees: ?
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| Revenues: AUD ?
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| Headquarters in: Sydney, Australia
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| Incorporated in: Australia
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| Owner/controlling interest: Consolidated Press Holdings Ltd
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| Updated: 2 January, 2005
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Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, or PBL, is one of Australia's major media companies. Kerry Packer is its majority shareholder.
Businesses
History
Australian Consolidated Press (ACP) was established in 1933. It later acquired a broadcasting license in Sydney when television began in Australia in the 1950's, and this station, TCN-9 Sydney was the first television station in Australia to go to air, launching 1956, with an annoucement from Bruce Gyngell "Good evening, and welcome to television".
In 1960, it purchased GTV-9 Melbourne to form the first television network in Australia, the National Television Network - later to become The Nine Network.
In 1987, Kerry Packer sold the Nine Network to Alan Bond, who then expanded the network to include QTQ-9 Brisbane and STW-9 Perth. Packer later brought the network back for half of what he sold it for in 1990.
Publishing and Broadcasting Limited was formed in 1994, from the merger of The Nine Network Australia and Australian Consolidated Press.
During the late 1990's PBL lost millions on a venture called Nine India . It's most tangiable form was a branded block on two of the channels operated by Doordarshan. It planned to become a major player in Indian television, but by early in the next decade, the concept was dropped.
In 1999, Crown Limited was merged into PBL, and the online division of PBL, ecorp was floated on the ASX. ecorp was later privatised and delisted from the Stock Exchange.
In 2002, PBL entered a deal with Prime Television, giving it an effective 50% stake in Prime NZ.
In 2004, PBL purchased the Burswood Casino in Perth, and an 50% stake in Hoyts Cinemas, along with West Australian Newspapers . Hoyts was previously owned by a Packer private company. It also sold Papua New Guinea's only television network, EM-TV to Fiji Television .
External links
