MS
This time last year I dared to post some wild and drunken ramblings on the next stages of consolidation within the UK and Irish broadcast industries. Naturally, much of it never happened although some of the predictions were not so wild and may still be on someone’s agenda.
Still ongoing – perhaps one day they’ll achieve the holy grail. Not much of a prediction as it had already started!
Thy didn’t – not at all! I’ve got to say however that this sill stands as a prediction, RTL seems positive even if Lord Hollick is not. Perhaps what has slowed this up was the prolonged, and absurd, love match between C4 and five.
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No – it got sold to the Australians instead! Ah well, what would ITV do wasting its cash on real estate and metal towers, when it could be buying back shares from US stockholders to avoid the cost of SEC regulation.
Still quite keen on this, but it didn’t happen in 2004, perhaps 2006?
Didn’t happen. No entertainment here, except prolonged waiting for RTE (and TV3) to be available legitimately via sky in Northern Ireland. CanWest did sell out of UTV, but to speculators rather than SMG.
The Good Friday agreement has yet to fling its final punch at the independence of Northern Ireland broadcasting, when it does they’ll be no place in the ITV network for both UTV and TV3.
It ought to appeal to both the Irish Government and the OfCommunists that broadcasting consolidation can be made to produce more, not less, competition if appropriate regulation is applied. Perhaps I’ll still be waiting in 2008.
They did – but for Disney and SMG took cash rather than stock. GMTV remains at the South Bank. I’ve got to fess-up to being biased and opinionated, wishing bad things to Kent House, with all its production transferred to Liverpool Docks and Anglia House. Alas, this time next year its Anglia House that will be in the hands of the developers.
Mr_Strawsons_Sheep posted:
(a) NTL and Telewest merge shareholding and operations.
Still ongoing – perhaps one day they’ll achieve the holy grail. Not much of a prediction as it had already started!
Mr_Strawsons_Sheep posted:
(b) Flextech sold to RTL for RTL stock and cash. Merged into C5 diluting UBM's shareholding. /(c) Capital merges with RTL.
Thy didn’t – not at all! I’ve got to say however that this sill stands as a prediction, RTL seems positive even if Lord Hollick is not. Perhaps what has slowed this up was the prolonged, and absurd, love match between C4 and five.
Mr_Strawsons_Sheep posted:
(d) NTL broadcast sold (cheaply) for shares and cash to ITV.plc. ITV southern playout moved to Crawley Court.
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No – it got sold to the Australians instead! Ah well, what would ITV do wasting its cash on real estate and metal towers, when it could be buying back shares from US stockholders to avoid the cost of SEC regulation.
Mr_Strawsons_Sheep posted:
(e) DMGT swap stakes in Teletext and ITN for ITV paper, other minority shareholders get half-decent offer of shares and cash. C4 offered buy-into ITN/TTL for cash, but on reasonable terms.
Still quite keen on this, but it didn’t happen in 2004, perhaps 2006?
Mr_Strawsons_Sheep posted:
(f) CanWest sell stake in TV3 to ITV for cash. /(h) UTV and RTL merge, announcing plan to compete against TV3 using a basis of Channel 5 and additional content, including Irish sport. ---- ITV try to deny network programming to UTV, using a new 1M watt analogue transmitter near Dundalk to get ITV network into Belfast via TV3. CanWest try to sit on fence, but have to decide where their interest lies when the whole thing goes horribly (and entertainingly) litigious in the UK and Eire.
Didn’t happen. No entertainment here, except prolonged waiting for RTE (and TV3) to be available legitimately via sky in Northern Ireland. CanWest did sell out of UTV, but to speculators rather than SMG.
The Good Friday agreement has yet to fling its final punch at the independence of Northern Ireland broadcasting, when it does they’ll be no place in the ITV network for both UTV and TV3.
It ought to appeal to both the Irish Government and the OfCommunists that broadcasting consolidation can be made to produce more, not less, competition if appropriate regulation is applied. Perhaps I’ll still be waiting in 2008.
Mr_Strawsons_Sheep posted:
(g) ITV uses shareholding in GMTV to force operational consolidation, moving production to ITN. Disney Corp swap GMTV stake for ITV paper.
They did – but for Disney and SMG took cash rather than stock. GMTV remains at the South Bank. I’ve got to fess-up to being biased and opinionated, wishing bad things to Kent House, with all its production transferred to Liverpool Docks and Anglia House. Alas, this time next year its Anglia House that will be in the hands of the developers.