It’s now becoming clearer why PBL
executive chairman James Packer was so kind to the departing Telstra
CEO Ziggy Switkowski at the PBL annual results briefing in Sydney last
month, saying that all PBL’s problems in Foxtel were now behind them
and “we wish Ziggy well.”

Considering that the Nine Network and The Bulletin had been campaigning for most of 2004 to remove Ziggy and his boss, Bob Mansfield, it was an especially generous remark.

Now we might know why – just look at this item in today’s CBD column in The Sydney Morning Herald:

Even after the last – and most optimistic – version,
Telstra execs told their superiors that while there might be something
in it for Fox Sports (a partnership between News and PBL), there was no
obvious benefit for Foxtel (Telstra 50 per cent, News 25 per cent and
PBL 25 per cent).

Yesterday, Justice Ronald Sackville wanted the mystery solved: why did Telstra agree?

The
only available clue, Sumption (Seven’s lead silk) said, was in a
handwritten minute of a Foxtel teleconference the day the fateful
decision was made in late 2000.

It turns out, Telstra execs Paul
Rizzo, Gerry Moriarty and Greg Willis all spoke against the bid. The
Telstra team then took a break but when they came back, chief Ziggy
Switkowski declared: “We will support the bid as proposed. We are
increasingly demanding of ourselves. We stand shoulder to shoulder to
push this forward. A show of solidarity only at next meeting. I think
we have made the right commercial decision.”

The minute ended with the only contribution during the whole teleconference from one James Packer: “Ziggy, thanks.”

No wonder James was so generous at the PBL briefing last month. Oh, and Ziggy will appear soon as a witness.