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Rupert Murdoch loses bid to change control of family trust

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Original article by Jessica Toonkel, Katherine Sayre
The Australian – Page: 15 : 11-Dec-24

Nevada probate commissioner Edmund Gorman jnr has rejected a bid by media mogul Rupert Murdoch to change the terms of a family trust in favour of his oldest son, Lachlan. At present, Murdoch’s four oldest children will have equal control of the 93-year-old’s media empire when he dies; however, Murdoch had sought to give Lachlan full control of the trust, and therefore its voting stakes in News Corporation and Fox Corp. A lawyer for Murdoch has flagged plans to appeal the ruling.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, FOX CORPORATION

Nine mulls future of talkback amid exits and cuts

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Original article by Sam Buckingham-Jones
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 21 : 9-Dec-24

Nine Entertainment’s radio division posted revenue of $103m in 2023, compared with $131.8m in 2019. Nine Radio contributes less than four per cent of the listed media group’s overall revenue, and 1.6 per cent of group EBITDA. Nine’s flagship radio stations are focused on talkback, which is competing with podcasts and streaming music platforms for audiences. Nine Radio director Tom Malone is confident about the future of the group’s radio arm. However, further on-air changes at Nine’s radio stations are possible following an overhaul at 6PR in Perth, where a recent ‘reset’ resulted in several presenters being axed and the breakfast show being extended by an hour.

CORPORATES
NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, NINE RADIO PTY LTD, 6PR SOUTHERN CROSS RADIO PTY LTD

Broadcasters go all in on reality shows

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Original article by Sam Buckingham-Jones
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 12 & 17 : 3-Dec-24

The Nine Network’s head of programming Hamish Turner notes that the death of reality television had been forecast two decades ago. However, the format remains as popular as ever, and research from Ampere Analysis has found that unscripted shows now account for 75 per cent of all TV programs that are commissioned worldwide. Unscripted shows also comprise four out of every five TV shows that are commissioned in Australia. Local free-to-air networks will rely heavily on reality TV again in 2025; the Ten Network will broadcast the latest iteration of ‘Big Brother’, more than 20 years after launching the format in Australia.

CORPORATES
NINE NETWORK AUSTRALIA LIMITED, NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, TEN NETWORK HOLDINGS LIMITED, AMPERE ANALYSIS

Red flags: Canberra warning to China on rare earths project

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Original article by Brad Thompson
The Australian – Page: 13 & 16 : 3-Dec-24

Rare earths producer Northern Minerals is continuing to attract scrutiny from the federal government regarding its links to Chinese investors. A spokesman for the Treasury has advised that it assesessing compliance with an order requiring five China-linked entities to divest shares in the company. The spokesman said the government will take further action if required to protect the national interest. Singapore-registered Yuxiao Fund is one of the entities that was required to divest shares; however, Northern Minerals has not been able to contact one of the Hong Kong-registered ­companies that acquired the shares.

CORPORATES
NORTHERN MINERALS LIMITED – ASX NTU, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, YUXIAO FUND

Global Lithium AGM delayed to probe Chinese conspiracy

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Original article by Mark Wembridge
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 17 : 20-Nov-24

The Supreme Court of Western Australia has approved Global Lithium Resources’ application to postpone its annual general meeting until 14 February. The AGM was scheduled to be held in Perth today, but the company had sought a delay in order to give the Foreign Investment Review Board more time to investigate allegations regarding Chinese-born minority shareholder Liaoliang Zhu. It has been claimed that Zhu is using his push to gain a seat on Global Lithium’s board to gain "effective control" of the company’s Manna lithium project in WA.

CORPORATES
GLOBAL LITHIUM RESOURCES LIMITED – ASX GL1, SUPREME COURT OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. FOREIGN INVESTMENT REVIEW BOARD

Perpetual backs in Murdochs at News

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Original article by Anthony Macdonald
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 28 : 20-Nov-24

News Corporation will shortly hold its AGM in New York, where shareholders will vote on a proposal to abolish the media group’s dual-share structure. The existing share structure means that the Murdoch family controls 41 per cent of News Corp’s voting shares but just 14 per cent of the company’s stock overall. The push for a single class of shares is being led by hedge fund Starboard Value, but Perpetual’s head of equities Vince Pezzullo says the Australian fund manager will support the status quo at the AGM. Pezzullo says the Murdochs and News Corp’s management have made a number of strategic decisions over the last decade that have paid off, including the sale of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets at the peak of the market.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS

Woolworths not guilty of land-banking, says supermarket’s property boss

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Original article by Jessica Yun
Brisbane Times – Page: Online : 19-Nov-24

Woolworths managing director of property Ralph Kemmler has appeared before the ACCC’s supermarket inquiry, with Kemmler denying that it engages in land banking, which it defines as accumulating land for future retail or industrial sites. The ACCC has a different definiton of land banking, defining it as the accumulation of land for the purpose of blocking competition, and ACCC counsel assisting Naomi Sharp SC asked Kemmler whether a section in its 2023 internal balance sheets titled ‘sites held for strategic reasons’ was a reference to land banking, to which Kemmler replied that he did not believe so.

CORPORATES
WOOLWORTHS GROUP LIMITED – ASX WOW, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION

‘Trump’s network’: Fox News is riding high after election night blowout

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Original article by Ben Makuch
The Guardian – Page: Online : 19-Nov-24

Fox News attracted millions more viewers on US presidential election night than rival CNN, with one Fox News host describing Trump as " as a phoenix from the ashes". Senator Marco Rubio, who Trump has nominated as his secretary of state, is one of a number of Trump cabinet appointments who were either regular fixtures or paid contributors to Fox News, while Wendy Via, the co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, says that Fox News will become "Trump’s network" during his second term as president.

CORPORATES
FOX NEWS, CABLE NEWS NETWORK

‘Technical limitation’: Why you can’t find most Aldi prices online

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Original article by Jessica Yun
Brisbane Times – Page: Online : 12-Nov-24

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is holding an inquiry into supermarket prices, with Aldi managing director of national buying Jordan Lack appearing before the inquiry on Monday. With the ACCC’s interim report finding that consumers are increasingly going online and using apps to compare prices between supermarkets, Lack told the inquiry that ‘technical limitation’ with its IT systems is making it difficult for shoppers to compare its prices online with those of Coles and Woolworths; he said that Aldi hoped to be able to publish its full range of prices "in the next year".

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSIONALDI STORES SUPERMARKETS PTY LTD