ENT Ltd, standing for Examiner-Northern TV Ltd, is a private shell company owned by

WIN Corporation WIN Corporation is a private Australian media company, that owns assets including the WIN Television network, Crawford Productions and several local radio stations. The company is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. History Founding The WIN b ...

. Formerly a

publicly listed A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (li ...

media company, from 1988 ENT had a majority share in Filmpac Holdings (formerly Filmways Australasian Distributors), a film and video distributor. Filmpac collapsed in 1990, and in 1994 ENT was taken over by WIN after major shareholder Edmund Rouse was involved in a bribery scandal.

History

ENT Ltd was a publicly listed Australian media company based in

Launceston, Tasmania Launceston () is a city in the north of Tasmania, Australia, at the confluence of the North Esk River, North Esk and South Esk River, South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River, Tasmania, Tamar River (kanamaluka). As of 2021, the Launc ...

run by major shareholder Edmund Rouse. 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. In 1994, a bribery scandal led to Rouse stepping down as managing director of ENT Ltd, which was taken over by WIN Corporation.

Filmpac

Filmways Australasian Distributors was originally formed by the founders of Dendy Cinemas, Mark Josem and Robert Ward, in 1971, to release movies to the Australian market. Mark Josem died in 1986 after a series of heart attacks from a surgery the previous year, and the company was renamed Filmpac Holdings soon afterwards. Filmpac Holdings was a distributor of both films and videos. ENT acquired a 40 per cent stake in 1988 from its purchase of Victoria-based media company Associated Broadcasting Services. Filmways/Filmpac also had a home video division on its own under the name Filmways Home Video, starting with a deal with Video Classics, then as a partnership with Video Tape Centre under the name 'Filmways VTC, with K-TEL Video distributing the titles from 1984 to 1985, 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. Both Vestron and Filmways were Video Classics members before the K-TEL alliance. Between 1986 and 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 Village Roadshow is an Australian company which operates cinemas and theme parks, and produces and distributes films. Before being acquired by private equity company BGH Capital, the company was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange a ...

, along with certain assets from another defunct distributor Seven Keys.

Other entities formerly controlled by ENT

Print media

*'' The Examiner'' newspaper (Launceston)

Television stations

TasTV * TVT-6

Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...

(now ''WIN Tasmania'') *

TNT-9 TNT is an Australian TV station based in Launceston, Tasmania, owned by Southern Cross Austereo. Originally broadcasting to northern Tasmania, it has broadcast to the whole of Tasmania since aggregation of the Tasmanian television market in 1994. ...

Launceston (now ''Seven Tasmania'') The Six Network (later VIC Television) * BTV-6

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...

(now ''WIN Victoria'') * GMV-6

Shepparton Shepparton () (Yorta Yorta language, Yortayorta: ''Kanny-goopna'') is a city located on the floodplain of the Goulburn River (Victoria), Goulburn River in northern Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, approximately north-northeast of Mel ...

(now ''WIN Victoria'') * STV-8

Mildura Mildura ( ) is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 at the 2021 census. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point, Merbein and Red ...

(now ''WIN Mildura'')

Radio stations

7EX Chilli 90.1fm (call sign 7EXX) is an Australian radio station in Tasmania. Owned and operated by ARN Media, ARN, it broadcasts a contemporary hit radio format to Launceston, Tasmania, Launceston and surrounding areas. First broadcast in 1938 as ...

Launceston (now ''Chilli 90.1fm'') * 7HT

(now ''Triple M'') * 3SR

* 3UL

Warragul Warragul () is a town in Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne. Warragul lies between the Strzelecki Ranges to the south and the Mount Baw Baw Plateau of the Great Dividing Range to the north. As of the , the town had a population of ...

(now (now ''531 3GG'') * 3UZ

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

(now ''RSN Racing & Sport'') *Four

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

n radio stations *Two

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

radio stations

Other assets

* Holyman (shipping) *

Gunns Gunns Limited was a major forestry enterprise located in Tasmania, Australia. It had operations in forest management, Woodchipping in Australia, woodchipping, sawmilling and Wood veneer, veneer production. The company was placed into liquidatio ...

(forestry) * Village Cinemas Tasmania (cinemas, 50 per cent joint venture with

)

References

{{Reflist Companies formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Defunct broadcasting companies of Australia