Press release from SBS
SBS today announced that it had entered into an agreement under which it will become the sole shareholder of PAN TV, which operates the World Movies Channel carried on the Foxtel and Austar pay television platforms.
SBS currently holds 40 per cent of the shares in PAN TV. Under the agreement it will increase its shareholding to 100 per cent, buying out the other existing shareholders.
SBS’s shareholding in PAN TV is currently managed by Multilingual Subscriber Television Limited (MSTL), a wholly owned subsidiary of SBS formed for the purpose of establishing and participating in the provision of pay-TV services.
These arrangements will not change and SBS’s involvement in subscription television will continue to be managed at arms length from SBS’s core activities.
PAN TV currently operates out of SBS’s Sydney headquarters and SBS already carries out a range of its functions. SBS has benefited from a content sharing deal with the World Movies Channel resulting in the best international movies screening across the pay-TV channel as well as SBS’s free-to-air channels SBS ONE and SBS TWO.
“SBS’s investment in PAN TV has been a successful one in both a business and content context,” Managing Director Shaun Brown said.
“When the chance came to increase our shareholding and take-over the PAN TV operations, the SBS Board and management considered it an opportunity to distribute more multicultural and multilingual content across more platforms while having a positive impact on SBS’s overall bottom line.
“This investment is in the long-term interests of SBS and will produce operational synergies and an improved financial return for SBS.”
The transaction is subject to certain conditions and will be completed using SBS’s share of existing cash reserves in PAN TV, with no direct cost to SBS’s broader operations.