Nine Entertainment Co chairman Peter Costello was asked at his company’s AGM on Thursday whether he had tried to speak with Stokes about the defamation case. Nine owns theHerald andThe Age.

“How much money have we spent on the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation matter and have we tried to reach out to Seven proprietor Kerry Stokes to stop funding the most expensive defamation action in Australian history,” Mayne asked. “Shouldn’t journalism companies be working together on public interest journalism,not funding defamation actions against rivals?”

Costello said:“We stand behind our journalists when we think they have done the right thing.”

Stokes also justified Seven’s decision to lodge a Federal Court action totry to blow up its $450 million deal with Cricket Australia,which expires in 2024,claiming that CA breached its Big Bash League broadcast rights contract. “They are being sued at the moment by Seven for misrepresentation,” Stokes said.

“They promised a certain quality of games in the Big Bash,and they failed to deliver that. And we didn’t think Afghanistan was an … alternative to one of the main countries as a Test.”

The BBL has struggled to generate high TV ratings since Seven acquired the rights in late 2018,andthe claim is based on several factors such as scheduling one-day international matches and international Twenty20 matches (which both run on Foxtel) in conflict with the BBL’s schedule.

Seven’s chief executive James Warburton said the company’s deal to lock down AFL free-to-air rights from 2025 to 2031 would be “an important part of our content strategy”.

Seven shares closed 2.2 per cent lower at 45 cents.

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