So what now? Don’t expect too much in the short term. James Packer, once he is over the problems with OneTel case against Jodee Rich and Mark Silbermann in the NSW Supreme Court, probably won’t do very much.

Certainly there will be no lobbying for media changes in Australia for a while, and despite his surname James Packer isn’t the ogre his father was when it came to calling in favours from politicians.

The Murdochs are foreign business people now and don’t have the clout they had when News Corp was an Australian company. Fairfax doesn’t interest James Packer and it’s not worth wasting valuable lobbying resources on something like that. TV isn’t high on his agenda: he feels PBL is the right size with Nine, Foxtel and half of ninemsn.

James Packer and PBL CEO, John Alexander are close. A new CEO for Nine has to be found so Chisholm can return to the PBL board. A new CEO arrives in March for ACP Magazines, in Ian Law from WA Newspapers.

There’s a new chief operating officer for PBL as well, while CFO, Geoff Kleeman, was renewed in the position a month or so ago.