Seven Network pledged to strengthen its presence in the Asia-Pacific region yesterday, saying it was an area of 'considerable potential' for the Australian group.
Finance director Peter Day said the group hoped to expand its Asian activities through its recently acquired satellite channel, Australia Television, which broadcasts to the Asia-Pacific region, and by building on its two existing terrestrial free-to-air joint ventures on the mainland.
'Terrestrial broadcasting is an area where we have extensive skills, and we look to bring those skills to these countries and thereby hope to make some profits for ourselves,' he said.
The group planned to introduce more satellite programming channels for the Asian market.
Seven chairman Kerry Stokes described the Australian Government's decision to abandon plans to relax the country's media ownership rules as a 'good decision for democracy.' He said that if the government decided to re-visit the plans in the future it should look at the whole media policy, rather than just one aspect of it.
Mr Stokes unveiled a 23 per cent fall in Seven's net profits to A$88.9 million (about HK$502.93 million) for the year to June, after the company's tax bill jumped to $51.6 million from $3.3 million.
