4 September 2003
NBC has at last started exclusive talks with Vivendi Universal. The merger would create a new US media venture valued at more than $40 billion. . The name of the new company is expected to be NBC Universal.
Vivendi chose NBC after the two companies agreed a preliminary deal to fold Vivendi’s US film, television and theme park businesses into a new company which would be controlled by NBC owners, General Electric.
Under the NBC proposal, Vivendi would receive $3.8 billion in cash on completion and retain a 20 per cent holding in the enlarged group. The deal could be signed by the end of the month.
4 September 2003
In an impressive cross-border move, AIB member CNBC Europes daily market reports from Europe, Asia and the United States are now being carried on Russia’s first 24-hour business news channel, RBC-TV.
Russian-language RBC-TV is to be “equal to leading Western news and analytical TV channels and adapted for the Russian audience,” the company said in a statement.
RBC-TV has partnered with CNBC Europe and CNN International. CNBC employees were brought in to help train the new staff, and CNBC has a two-year agreement with RBC to allow the network to translate and use its daily market reports from Europe, Asia and the United States. CNN will provide general world news coverage in exchange for the rights to use RBC-TV’s reporting.
RosBusinessConsulting, a Russian business information agency founded a decade ago, has secured $23 million for the project; $17 million from the agency itself and the remaining $6 million through a private debt placement with Western investors, according to the Moscow Times.
4 September 2003
The Iraq war and its bloody aftermath have brought home, through such graphic coverage, the risks faced by journalists. UK charity The Rory Peck Trust is particularly concerned about freelancers and their families.
And now the Trust, not yet well known globally, will be able to help in a very practical way. Substantial funding from the Sigrid Rausing Trust has given The Rory Peck Trust a unique opportunity to increase help for freelancers and their families around the world, who are often unsupported by the broadcasters who use them in dangerous assignments.
Chairman of The Rory Peck Trust, Bob Jobbins says, The main aim of the project this year is to identify those people who need the Trusts help. The grant will allow us to give assistance to the families of freelancers who have been killed, to freelancers who have been injured and to begin work that will enable more freelancers worldwide to take hostile environment training courses.
4 September 2003
If you need to clear up the studio clutter as you go digital, UK-based Link Reseaarch, winner of an award at last years IBC, this year invite you to inspect their Link XP2 wireless camera.
You can catch the XP2 and the XP1 in action at stand 1.271. The LinkXP2 wireless camera system and its new “Digital Pathway” solution for Triax will be on view for the first time ever.
Already fully tested and working, this is the next and final step towards end-to-end digital acquisition / broadcasting with wireless camera systems.
Besides wireless cameras, Link make encoders, modulators and receivers. Partnered with some of the big names in the business, Link offer wide-ranging solutions.
2 September 2003
The saga of French Group Vivendi attempting to sell off VUE, its US entertainment interests, may be nearing some kind of resolution. It looks as if the group will enter exclusive negotiations with NBC, as the embattled French media group seeks to end the long-running auction.
The two remaining bidders are NBC and former vice-chairman of Vivendi Edgar Bronfman. But NBC seems to be front runner. Under the deal proposed, Vivendi would retain at least 20 per cent of the enlarged media group, which it could cash in over five years. The joint venture is provisionally named NBC Universal.
Some executives of VUE, the US entertainments arm, are concerned that NBC will strengthen the television side of the business and cause large-scale redundancies.
2 September 2003
Although Indian-Pakistan relations are not as tense as a few months ago, when war seemed a possibility, PEMRA (the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) has ordered the closing of all Indian TV cable channels in Pakistan. The ban has seriously affected business as viewers are discontinuing cable subscriptions when they do not get any popular entertainment in their language. “Over 98 per cent of the viewers on our cable system want to watch popular Urdu (Indian) channels said Malik Furgan, president of the Cable Operator Association.
Cable operators will observe a seven-day countrywide strike if a ban on showing Indian programmes is not lifted.
