ENT Ltd, standing for Examiner-Northern TV Ltd, is a private shell company owned by WIN Corporation. In its heyday, ENT was a publicly listed Australian media company based in Launceston, Tasmania. It was run by major shareholder Edmund Rouse until 1994, when a bribery scandal led to Rouse stepping down as managing director and it was taken over by WIN Corporation.
Previous entities in direct control by ENT Ltd
editPrint media
edit- The Examiner newspaper (Launceston)
Television stations
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TasTV
The Six Network (later VIC Television)
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Radio stations
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Other assets
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Filmpac Holdings was a film and video distributor. ENT acquired a 40 per cent stake in 1988 from its purchase of Victoria-based media company Associated Broadcasting Services.[1] From 1986 to 1990, Filmpac released a total of 69 films theatrically making it the country's largest independent mainstream theatrical distributor. The company collapsed in 1990 with its film library purchased by Village Roadshow, along with certain assets from another defunct distributor Seven Keys.[2]
It was originally known as Filmways Australasian Distributors, and it was originally formed by the founders of Dendy Theaters, Mark Josem and Robert Ward in 1971 to release movies in the box office to the Australian market.[3][4] Mark Josem died in 1986 after a series of heart attacks from a surgery the previous year.[5] The company would soon be renamed to Filmpac Holdings.[4]
The company also had a home video division on its own under the name Filmways Home Video, starting with a deal with Video Classics,[6] then as a partnership with Video Tape Center under the name Filmways VTC, with K-TEL Video distributing the titles from 1984 to 1985,[7] and Vestron Video International distributing titles by Filmways Home Video/Filmpac from 1985 to 1988 before it became an independent video distributor for two years. Ironically enough, both Vestron and Filmways were Video Classics members before the K-TEL alliance.[8]
ENT's 1988 annual report described the company's principal activities as television, newspapers, radio, commercial printing, motels, travel agencies, picture theatres, property development and investment.
References
edit- ^ Tanner, Stephen (1 January 1995). "The rise and fall of Edmund Rouse" (PDF). Australian Studies in Journalism (4). University of Queensland: 72–89. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
- ^ Given, Jock; Curtis, Rosemary; McCutcheon, Marion (June 2013). "Cinema in Australia: an industry profile". Swinburne University of Technology. doi:10.4225/50/55822D83C5B59. hdl:1959.3/312955.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Alert 101, Film (23 July 2017). "Film Alert 101: Vale Robert Ward - David Kilderry writes on the life of an adventurous showman in the Australian movie business". Film Alert 101. Retrieved 11 June 2023.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b "Mark Josem". IMDb. Retrieved 11 June 2023.
- ^ "French film too sexy". The Sydney Morning Herald. 16 May 1985. p. 3.
- ^ "Video booming in tough times". The Sydney Morning Herald. 3 January 1983. p. 66.
- ^ "(print ad)". Cinema Papers. 1 October 1984. p. 6.
- ^ "Video Classics profit proof of popularity". The Sydney Morning Herald. 16 October 1983. p. 107.