spectrum to meet demand for wireless broadband, page-12

Stokes – 4G Plus Media Assets

This looks like a content play with a “last mile” broadband chaser. Fast speeds+ Seven Network content+a virtual monopoly newspaper in Perth (The West Australian) for a cool $50 mill looks like the most sophisticated new media content play we’ve seen in this country - especially if Perth is going to be used as a market and technology test bed for an eventual national rollout of a similar scheme - even if only in the capital cities.
It’s worth remembering that Kerry Stokes is sitting on nearly $1.4 billion in cash. This is a WiMax solution - making it not particularly conducive to legacy mobile phone technology (the big drawback) - but it does provide a mobile broadband avenue to pump large chunks of Stokes owned content into what is effectively the pretty parochial and localised market of WA. It’s an interesting response to struggling heritage media - become a broadband supplier and push content natively. It certainly opens up opportunities in Sandgroper country for media experimentation, finding out what works and what doesn’t in the new media landscape before a possible national rollout. If Stokes is successful, he’ll have the methodological jump on everyone from Nine to News Ltd to Fairfax. If he fails, he’s only pissed $50 mill up the wall.

That’s not a bad risk spread by any yardstick.

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollytics/2009/09/02/stokes-4g-plus-media-assets/