24 September 2003
Tony Ball, CEO of the UKs BSkyB, has said that he will certainly go as soon as a successor can be found. He expects that this will be long before the end of his contract next May.
Will the successor be young James Murdoch, currently running STAR TV in Asia? A nomination committee chaired by Lord St John of Fawsley, a non-executive director, will immediately initiate a search for a successor to Mr Ball. And will Rupert Murdoch remain as BSkyB chairman?
In the meantime Tony Ball has signed an agreement that will prevent him working for any other UK television company in the UK. He is expected to become a consultant for News Corporation, perhaps advising on plans for DirecTV in the United States, Sky Italia and developing News Corps satellite business in Latin America.
24 September 2003
Viacom, the world’s largest media group, has cut back its estimates for the full year. The group says that national advertising in the US is strong, but local advertising is not up to expectations.
The New York-based company,owner of CBS and MTV, now expects single digit growth in revenues and operating income for the full year.
But Viacom still hopes for record revenues, operating income and earnings per share as well as strong growth during 2004, when it hopes to gain from the improved US economy, presidential election advertising and Super Bowl ads.
23 September 2003
Reuters, the electronic information group, is to move out of its historic headquarters in Fleet Street.
The company which is undertaking a $700 million cost-saving programme. It will be the last famous media name to quit Fleet Street over the past 20 years, and it is likely that Reuters will move its offices to Wapping, the home of its UK operations, or to Canary Wharf in the Docklands.
The decision to move follows a lengthy financial review of Reuters’ property portfolio, which saw the transfer of its US operations to a new headquarters on Broadway, in Manhattan, two years ago.
The removal can be seen as part of a far-reaching modernisation plan. Reuters had been expected to streamline its property portfolio under a three-year overhaul, prompted by a sharp decline in financial services and volatile demand for desk-top terminals.
23 September 2003
In the 2003 survey if opinion leaders in Europe, BBC World and CNN come out tops, with Euronews, Bloomberg and AIB member CNBC also ranking well.
BBC World came in at number one for authority and relevance, being watched each day by more than 20% of Europes opinion leaders, while 35.2% tune into the channel each week. This is more than the number viewing Euronews (31.5%), and double the combined audience of the two business news channels Bloomberg and CNBC (14.2% aggregate).
While CNN remains the market leader in terms of overall viewership (49.6% weekly reach), BBC World scored the highest marks on two key qualitative measures, with 19% of Europes opinion leaders considering BBC World authoritative, compared with only 12% for CNN, and 4% for Euronews.
CNBC Europe scores well for being up-to-the-minute, and Bloomberg is noted for keeping viewers informed.
22 September 2003
Two of the world’s richest media groups are interested in taking over Britains leading commercial broadcaster ITV. Although funded by advertising, ITV has for many years carried out a quasi-public service role.
Viacom, the world’s largest media group, confirmed it might consider a deal, as did Saban Capital Group, the US private equity company led by Haim Saban, the media entrepreneur. Both offers are conditional on a merger between the two ITV companies Carlton and Granada.
Meanwhile Greg Dyke, Director-General of the BBC, Britains leading public broadcaster, has launched a scathing attack on the “small coterie in Downing Street” behind new laws that will allow ITV being taken over by an American company for the first time.
