News: TEN Lachlan Murdoch makes fresh bid for Australia's Ten Network, page-35

Yeah. I think that there certainly are some egos behind all this. I don't think there is any love lost by CBS for Rupert Murdoch's penetration of the US television market, both free-to-air and cable and this could be pay-back time. Whilst I can see that CBS would like a foot-hold for their CBS All-Access subscription service, I am not convinced that commercially, it makes very much sense for CBS to run a free-to-air network in a country of such a small population as Australia's (compared with the US) unless there is another agenda behind their moves. I think that CBS has put itself into the position that we see today because 1. it wants to embarrass Murdoch (which it has done in spades!), 2. it wants to provide a foothold for its subscription distribution services which will compete with Foxtel and which CBS has been ramping up (see new series such as Star Trek as an example, which have been made exclusively for their cable distribution), 3. it is protecting its $350Million debt for programmes previously supplied and which it would have received next-to-nothing for as a creditor if they had not taken control and 4. it weakens Murdoch's influence over the national (and state) political institutions which he has been successful in cultivating in the US through such media as Fox News which some would argue, is quite supportive of the Republicans at the expense of the Democrates (just look at how News Ltd reports Abbott versus how it reports Shorten). The Murdoch's have really been quite out-manuvoured here, appearing to not even originally have been intending to lodge a tender for TEN until they realised that CBS was in playing, probably with the initial intention of getting TEN for even less than the $58Million capitalisation. It is almost inconceivable that Gordon and Murdoch could have put themselves into this position of now having to play catch-up for a game that is almost out of their reach where previously they had it all in the palm of their hands. CBS's strategy has been flawless and well thought through - which makes them a dangerous competitor for Murdoch. It would not surprise me if, after the dust settles, that if CBS is victorious that deals will be done with Murdoch to sell off the bits of TEN that CBS does not want, but at a significant premium and Murdoch has to eat bucket-loads of humble pie. Buying a regional like Southern Cross simply would not cut it for the Murdoch boys and they probably won't be able to buy into Networks 9 or 7. Of course, this is all speculation.