SEN set for national roll-out

Melbourne’s SEN is set to be rolled out nationally, after its merger with Craig Hutchison’s Crocmedia is confirmed at a general meeting for shareholders of Pacific Star Network on Thursday. 

Craig Coleman, PSN’s chairman, told Fairfax the merger was attractive to investors owing to its newly acquired suite of sports rights, the fact that company had been trading at a multiple well below other listed media companies, and because of new on-air talent such as ex-ABC broadcaster Gerard Whateley.

According to Mr Coleman, proxy votes are running to 98 per cent in favour of the deal, which will form a company with pro-forma annual revenue of $48 million and pre-tax earnings of about $10 million.

“What Craig has been doing at Crocmedia has been impressive, syndicating media content across more than 200 stations in Australia and then you add AFL and NRL rights and you’ve got that national footprint,’ said Mr Coleman.

“We’ve got that 200-station presence [via syndication] but we believe in having the freehold as well as the leasehold, so to speak. So we think if you can get the product right the opportunity is there. We’d like to have that national perspective but keep some local content, depending on where you are.”

 
 

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