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Seven Network: landmarks

Landmarks

This chronology is indicative only. It covers -

Beginnings

1853 Hardy Bros founded

1955 Fairfax subsidiary Amalgamated Television Services gains commercial television licence

1956 H&WT launches HSV-7 commercial television station in Melbourne

1956 GTV-9 Melbourne launched by General Television (consortium of The Argus, Syme, Hoyts, Greater Union)

1957 Fairfax-controlled television station ATN-7 goes live in Sydney (initial affiliation with GTV9 Melbourne)

1959 BTQ-7 (Brisbane) launched

1959 TVW-7 (Perth) launched

1960 Packer buys 62% of GTV-9 for £3.76m

1962 CTC-7 (Canberra) launched

1963 coaxial cable links Sydney and Melbourne

1963 HSV-7 and ATN-7 alliance as Australian Television Network (ATN)

1964 Ansett Transport Industries (ATI) buys 49.9% of TVQ-0 Brisbane

1965 SAS-10 (Adelaide) launched

1968 Christopher Skase works as clerk as JB Were & Son brokers

1969 Kirk Kerkorkian buys MGM

1970 ATI buys rest of TVQ-0

1970 Skase becomes finance writer at Sun News-Pictorial

1974 forms Takeovers, Equities & Management Securities (TEAM)

1977 Skase gains 34% and control of Qintex

1978 Qintex sells Launceston store, buys 40% of Lustre Jewellery

1978 Skase buys further 8% of Qintex

1978 Fairfax acquires full ownership of Macquarie Broadcasting Holdings radio group

1979 Qintex buys Hardy Bros for $4.5m, sells stake in Victorian Broadcasting Network

1979 Murdoch makes unsuccessful bid for H&WT

1979 Murdoch gains 50% of ATI and control of ATV-10 Melbourne

1979 AUSSAT established

1980 Kerry Stokes buys CTC-7 (Canberra) from Fairfax

1980 ATI sells TVQ-0 to Ampol Petroleum and Broadcasting Station 2SM

1980 Qintex buys rest of Lustre and 6% of VBN

1981 buys 20% of PML property trust

1982 pays $4.6m for 51% of Pastoral & Industrial Holdings (inc 19% stake in Telecasters North Queensland) and 5% of Mackay and Mt Isa Television

1982 buys 7% of car dealer Nettlefolds

1982 makes unsuccessful bid for Qld retailer Rothwells (later fringe merchant bank associated with Bond)

1983 pay-tv operator Broadcast & Communications (Broadcom) established

The Qintex era

1984 Australian Broadcasting Tribunal forces Qintex to reduce Telecasters NQ stake to 5%

1984 Qintex buys 48% of Wilkinson, Day & Grimes (WDG) timber company

1984 Qintex (through WDG) buys TVQ-0 Brisbane from Ampol for $34m

1984 Qintex buys Broadcasting Station 2SM

1986 Skase forms Qintex America

1986 Qintex America buys 41% of Hal Roach Studios for $33m, with 49% of Colorisation Inc

1986 Qintex launches Sheraton Mirage resort

1986 sells TVQ-0 to Darling Downs Television

1986 News sells stake in Network Ten Holdings to Westfield Capital Corporation subsidiary Northern Star for $840m

1986 Northern Star buys NEW Perth, CTC-7 Canberra and ADS-7 Adelaide

1986 Kirk Kerkorian sells MGM to Turner, buys back studio

1986 Murdoch gains control of H&WT for $1.8bn

1987 Murdoch sells HSV-7 Melbourne to Fairfax for $320m

1987 Fairfax sells Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney 7 stations to Qintex for $780m

1987 SAS-10 becomes SAS-7 (swaps networks from Ten to Seven)

1987 Northern Star buys TVQ-0 Brisbane from Darling Downs Television, establishes TEN tv network

1987 Qintex buys 40% of Princeville Development Corporation (resort in Kauai, Hawaii) for US$57m

1987 sells Princeville Airlines

1987 Stokes and Jack Bendat sell Golden West regional tv network to TEN

1987 Qintex launches 110 foot $6m yacht

1988 Qintex buys further 53% of Princeville for US$59m

1988 Lowy sells Golden West network to Stokes

1988 Qintex opens Mirage Port Douglas resort

1988 buys 38% of Seaworld Property Trust for $51m

1988 buys SAS (Adelaide) and TVW (Perth) from Bell for $130m

1989 makes US$1.2bn (later US$1.5bn) bid for MGM-United Artists

1989 sells 49.9% of three Mirage resorts to Mitsui & Co and Nippon Shinpan for $433m

1989 sells Seaworld stake for $73m

1989 Steve Vizard and Andrew Knight form Artist Services production house

Collapse

1989 Qintex goes into receivership

1989 Stokes buys Canberra Times from Packer for $110m (inc loan from News)

1989 Steve Cosser buys control of TEN Network (inc 20% stake in three main stations) from Westfield Capital for $22m. Curran Capital Television buys other stations

1990 Westpac bank puts receivers into TEN network

1990 51% of three Mirage resorts bought by Nippon Shinpan

1990 Skase leaves Australia, successfully fights extradition proceedings

1990 Kerkorian sells MGM to Giancarlo Parretti

1990 Packer regains control of Nine network for around $250m

1991 collapse of Qintex and Tricontinental precipitates $3.15bn rescue of State Bank of Victoria

Waning independence

1991 Seven network assets incorporated separately

1992 Asper's CanWest buys control of Ten network for $245m using complicated ownership structure

1992 banks take over MGM

1993 pay-tv operator Australis lists on stock exchange

1993 Seven listed on stock exchange

1994 Seven network joins then withdraws from Optus Vision cable-tv partnership with Nine network and Optus

1995 Kerry Stokes takes 20% stake in Seven Network

1995 Murdoch's News and Telstra launch Foxtel pay-tv joint venture

1995 Packer sells Fairfax stake to News, News takes stake in Nine

1996 Australian Competition & Consumer Competition blocks merger between Foxtel and ailing Australis

1996 Kerkorian and Seven buy MGM from Credit Lyonnais

1996 Golden West network sold to Prime

1997 Optus buys out Optus Vision partners

1997 Seven buys Australia Television (Asian pay-tv channel) from ABC

Stokes

1997 News sells its 15% stake in Seven for $245m

1998 Australis goes into receivership

1998 TDN-34 (Darwin) launched

1998 Packer gains 25% stake in Foxtel

1998 Seven sells MGM stake for US$389m

1998 Stokes sells Canberra Times to Rural Press for $160m

2000 Seven invests $83m in 3BG joint venture tv production company with Universal Studios

2000 forms Red Heart joint venture tv production house (inc Artist Services) with Granada

2000 Granada increases Seven stake to 10.4%

2000 Colonial Stadium (later rebadged as Telstra Dome) opens

2001 Skase dies in exile in Spain

2001 Seven buys 50% of Pacific Publications, PMP's Australian and New Zealand magazine arm

2001 Red Heart joint venture unwound

2002 Seven buys 50% of Glenn Wheatley's Talentworks promotion business

2003 Seven buys PMP's remaining stake in Pacific Publications, sells 13.9% stake in PMP for $30m

2003 Pacific Publications gains long-term licence to publish Family Circle magazine in Australia and New Zealand

2004 Stokes increases stake in Nylex to 17.45%

2004 Seven sells AOL|7 stake to Primus

2004 Pacific Publications buys Murdoch Magazines from Handbury family for $77m

2005 PMP buys printing assets of Rodney Times Media Group for NZ$12m ($11m)

2006 ITV sells its 11.6% stake in Seven Network for £87m

2006 Seven buys 14.9% of WAN for $343m