IT&T and Media

AH's commercial approach and its ability to solve difficult problems in a clever and practical way have resulted in the firm successfully acting for a number of technology, communication and media clients.

AH ranks in the top tier of media law advisers, having acted for organisations as varied as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, WIN Corporation, CanWest Global Communications Corporation, Publishing & Broadcasting, Consolidated Press Holdings, News Corporation, and Ten Network. As was observed in the Asia Pacific Legal 500 lawyers guide:

"Atanaskovic Hartnell advises print and television organisations, and John Atanaskovic has one of the strongest records of any media lawyer in Australia, dating back over two decades and featuring most landmark acquisitions and media ownership cases. Atanaskovic has acquired a reputation for achieving the impossible for his clients. Advising on the Ten Network Holdings flotation demonstrated the firm's intimate understanding both of the letter of the Broadcasting Services Act, and of the policy and attitudes of the Australian Broadcasting Authority and the Foreign Investment Review Board regarding media matters."

AH's IT and communications clients include SevenWest Media, the IT venture capital funds managed by Allen & Buckeridge (Australia's leading IT venture capitalist), ABC Online (a unit of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation), @www (a leading web services business), e-Choice, LibertyOne, and Cable & Wireless Optus. 

We have advised on manifold legal issues, including those arising out of or relating to convergence of telecommunications computers and media, foreign investment restrictions in the Australian media sector, emergence and proliferation of broadband, datacasting, spectrum allocation and reallocation, carriage and content services, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and alliances, capital raisings, regulatory and legislative requirements, judicial review of administrative action, competition, trade practices and access issues, and licence rights and obligations.