Craig Shepherd Quotations

That needs to be followed through over the next 18 months.

They probably surprised a little bit on the profitability of the Nine Network, which was a good surprise. Their revenue on TV was down and EBITDA was down 13.1 percent but I think a lot of people thought it would be down more than that.

It's been trading in a pretty tight band around $16.50 for about four months, so a bit of the uncertainty was already priced in.

They laid it on the line that the Nine Network would be run for profitability rather than ratings going forward.

It was just moderately lower than our expectations. With the first-half result, it is clear revenue would not necessarily beat last year's, in full year terms.

The fact they've turned a low margin operation into a good margin operation demonstrates to me that there is expertise there and gives me some confidence in their New Zealand purchase.

I don't necessarily think the outlook for gaming is inhibited by the TV network, and both can be run quite successfully together.

The combination of the good people that surround him, with the experience that James Packer's had, means they will have the capacity to execute those plans.