Murdoch’s poaching games shake up Australian media

Lachlan Murdoch, the son and perceived heir of media baron Rupert Murdoch, and Seven Media CEO David Leckie have been shoring up support from advertisers for their respective networks in Australia following Murdoch's move to poach Seven sales supremo James Warburton to run the Ten Network.

Media buyers who control the flow of 85 per cent of all television advertising dollars reported on Friday that both Murdoch, who is a director, acting chief executive and a shareholder of Ten Network Holdings, and Leckie, who is group chief executive at Seven Media Group, had been out to see senior media buyers in the past couple of days.

John Steedman, chairman and chief executive of the GroupM group of media agencies, said Murdoch had held an hour-long meeting with him to assure him that changes would be made quickly at Ten.

"He told me they've got some irons in the fire in terms of plans," Steedman said. "He was saying, 'This is how we're going about it', which is what I wanted to hear."

Buyers said Murdoch advised them that Mr Warburton would start at Ten in July as announced during the week, despite speculation that Seven would force him to serve out a non-compete period in his contract.

Sources close to the network said Ten had looked at the contract, but Ten's corporate spokeswoman Jeannette McLoughlin stopped short of quashing the rumours yesterday.