, or '''PBL''', is one of
Australia 's major media companies. It is headquartered in
Sydney ,
Australia . Australia's richest man,
James Packer , son of the late
Kerry Packer , is its majority shareholder, through his company
Consolidated Press Holdings Ltd .
Australian Consolidated Press (ACP) was established in
1933 . It acquired a broadcasting license in Sydney when television began in Australia in the 1950s. Its television station, TCN-9 Sydney was the first station in Australia to go to air, launched
1956 , by an announcement 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 bought 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 . Its most tangible 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 the Packer private company; Conslidated Press Holdings Ltd. It also sold
Papua New Guinea 's only television network,
EM-TV to
Fiji Television .
On
October 18 2006 , James Packer announced the sell-off of 50% of PBL's media interests for A$4.5 billion to focus on its gambling business. The sell-off includes
Nine Network and its 50 per cent interest in
NineMSN .
PBL is currently involved in two casino projects in
Macau : the $260 million Crown Macau, scheduled for completion in 2006-07, and the $1.4 billion City of Dreams. The projects are joint ventures with Melco, a Macau company. In March 2006, PBL announced that it had spent US$900 million (A$1.2 billion) to purchase a casino sub-concession from Wynn Resorts that would give the Melco-PBL joint venture the right to conduct casino operations. PBL's commitment to these ventures is the biggest investment by an Australian company in the PRC to date
1.
In May 2007, PBL announced that it would split into two companies, Crown and Consolidated Media Holdings
2.
