Talk:News Limited
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The following paragraph is WRONG. When Murdoch/News owned TV stations ( mid 1970s to late 1980s ), the "cross-media ownership law" was not in existence. The old law was, nobody could own more than 2 TV stations, therefore it was not possible to own a national network of stations in all major cities. The Fairfax newspaper company owned 2 stations ( 7 in Sydney and Brisbane ) and the HWT newspaper business also owned 2. Those TB stations were owned in the cities where they had papers. Murdoch also owned 2 stations in the cities where he had papers. The "cross-media ownership law" was introduced after Murdoch sold out his TV stations in Australia.
Murdoch's desire for dominant cross-media ownership manifested early—in 1961 he bought an ailing Australian record label, Festival Records, and within a few years it had become the leading local recording company. He also bought a television station in Wollongong, New South Wales, hoping to use it to break into the Sydney television market, but found himself frustrated by Australia's cross-media ownership laws, which prevented him from owning both a major newspaper and television station in the same city. Since then he has consistently lobbied, both personally and through his papers, to have these laws changed in his favour.
