![]() ![]() The general manager of Civic Video, Jocelyn Moore, says: "Australians do have a huge appetite for entertainment and are willing to add most new products to their repertoire." That is good news for the providers of traditional entertainment products, such as movies and TV programs. The elasticity of consumer spending on entertainment - the ability of disposable income to stretch or shift to accommodate new forms of entertainment and leisure - underpins the boom. Their use of entertainment products has become structured and efficient." ![]() Use the constant parade of new entertainment and leisure products? Sweeney says: "People have become much more efficient in terms of how they organise their leisure time. Longer working hours are contributing to the stress Sweeney refers to, and seem to produce a contradiction: if people are working longer hours (the average working week has increased from 43 hours to 49 hours since 1993), how are they finding time to "Stress is the biggest problem of the 1990s, and short-term relief from stress is vitally important to people." "People have become less interested in acquiring material goods and more interested in finding temporary forms of enjoyment," he says. ![]() Market researcher Brian Sweeney says that a change in the attitude of consumers is also contributing to the boom. At the same time, entertainment companies have expanded their distribution (witness the recent appearance of compact discs next to the cash registers in Ampol petrol stations) and have become smarter at marketing. New products such as pay TV, theme parks, new-generation video games and on-line services are fuelling the entertainment boom. During the past five years there has been explosive growth in the sales of cinema tickets, compact discs, computer software (much of which is used for entertainment, rather than education or business), CD-ROMs and theatre tickets. Australians' spending on entertainment and leisure is rising by 3% a year. The strong public debut of Hoyts and Southern Star - and the solid share-price performance in recent years of entertainment groups such as Amalgamated Holdings, which is controlled by Alan Rydge (net worth: $230 million), and Village Roadshow (Roc Kirby and family: $420 million) - reflects the health of the entertainment sector. That stake is now valued at $100 million. Just before the float of Hoyts, Ivany, 42, lifted his stake in the company from 20.79 million shares to 34.52 million, or 15.5% (a capital raising in November trimmed his shareholding to 14.2%). Balnaves, 53, pocketed $19.6 million for reducing his stake in Southern Star from 48.8% to 26.7% ahead of the float his remaining 25.5 million shares are valued about $42 million. The public offerings were a bonanza for Balnaves and Ivany. Issued at $1.40, Southern Star shares hit $1.90 on their first day of trading and are now about $1.65. Southern Star, which makes programs such as Blue Heelers and Water Rats and owns program-distribution and tape-duplication divisions, went public in September. Hoyts, Australia's second-largest cinema operator, was listed in August, with its $2 shares starting at $2.55. Last year, Hoyts and Southern Star noted the rising investor interest in the entertainment sector and decided to take advantage of it. Both men make their debut on this year's Rich 200, with Ivany, the chief executive of Hoyts Cinemas, landing with an estimated net worth of $75 million and Balnaves, executive chairman of television program production and distribution company Southern Star, arriving with an estimated net worth of $60 million. The Australian investment community's infatuation with show business has made Peter Ivany and Neil Balnaves rich. List with a combined worth of $135 million. The driving forces behind a cinema operator and television production house struck pay dirt when their companies were floated last year. ![]()
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