By Rod McGuirk
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) --Troubled Australian television broadcaster Ten Network will be sold to U.S. giant CBS Corp. subject to regulatory approval of foreign ownership, the Sydney-based company's administrator said on Monday.
New York-based CBS had "entered into binding transaction documents" to buy the network's owner, Ten Network Holdings Ltd., administrator KordaMentha said in a statement.
CBS is the biggest creditor of Australia's third most popular free-to-air commercial TV network that went into voluntary administration in June.
The sale is subject to conditions including approval by Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board, KordaMentha said.
The sale price will be revealed in a report to creditors within days.
Armando Nunez, president and chief executive of CBS Studios International, said CBS recognized the significance of Ten to Australian broadcasting.
"We are committed to the efficient, reliable and successful turnaround, operation and development of Ten to support continued growth in Australian media," Nunez said in a statement.
Ten chief executive Paul Anderson said his network and CBS had a strong relationship.
"We are very excited about further developing that relationship with CBS as an owner and strength that they will provide to the company at this critical time," Anderson said in a statement.
CBS chairman and chief executive Leslie Moonves said the sale added Ten to CBS's global content and distribution portfolios.
"We have been able to acquire it at a valuation that gives us confidence we will grow this asset by applying our programming expertise in a market with which we are already familiar," Moonves said in a statement.
Ten appointed administrators after its billionaire backers, Lachlan Murdoch and Bruce Gordon, refused to guarantee a new 250 million Australian dollar ($198 million) bank loan when a current AU$200 million loan is due to expire in December.
Murdoch, who co-chairs News Corp. with his father Rupert, and Gordon, who owns regional network WIN Television, want to each buy a 50 percent share in the Ten.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the competition watchdog, said last week it would not oppose the joint bid, saying it was unlikely to result in a "substantial lessening of competition in any relevant market."
But the deal is blocked by federal laws passed in the 1980s to ensure diversity of media ownership. The government is currently negotiating with the Senate to relax those laws and allow Murdoch and Gordon to buy the network.
California governor signs law to protect children from social media addiction
California will make it illegal for social media platforms to knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent beginning in 2027 under a new law Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Friday.
California follows New York state, which passed a law earlier this year allowing parents to block their kids from getting social media posts suggested by a platform's algorithm. Utah has passed laws in recent years aimed at limiting children's access to social media, but they have faced challenges in court.
The California law will take effect in a state home to some of the largest technology companies in the world. Similar proposals have failed to pass in recent years, but Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law in 2022 barring online platforms from using users' personal information in ways that could harm children. It is part of a growing push in states across the country to try to address the impacts of social media on the well-being of children.
"Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children — isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night," Newsom said in a statement. "With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits."
The law bans platforms from sending notifications without permission from parents to minors between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m., and between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays from September through May, when children are typically in school. The legislation also makes platforms set children's accounts to private by default.
Opponents of the legislation say it could inadvertently prevent adults from accessing content if they cannot verify their... Read More