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GLOBAL: Wade appointed CEO of News International
News Corp has appointed former editor of The Sun, Rebekah Wade, as CEO of News International. Wade will assume responsibility for the day-to-day operations of News International, which comprises The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times, News of the Worl...
GLOBAL: The law of unintended consequences?
In the middle of one of the toughest periods the UK's regional newspaper industry has ever experienced, an outdated regulatory framework set up to protect the industry is in fact making it even harder for regional papers to survive....
GLOBAL: Carey to rejoin News Corp
News Corp. has recruited the chief executive of North America's largest satellite broadcaster DirecTV Group, Chase Carey. Carey returns to the company as an assistant to CEO Rupert Murdoch....
GLOBAL: Rocky future for UK indies
One of the myriad outcomes of the global recession on the media industry has been a marked shift in the relations between the major broadcasters and the independent television producers. In the UK, as the major public broadcasters struggle to cope wi...
GLOBAL: Prisa picks new CEO for Sogecable
Spanish media group Prisa has moved quickly to replace Javier Díez de Polanco as chief executive of pay TV subsidiary Sogecable. The company has named Pedro Garcia Guillen as his replacement. Guillen is currently general manager of Prisa's newspaper ...
DENMARK: DR invites bids for publishing rights
State-owned broadcaster DR has launched a tender process to sell the rights over its content for publishing purposes. Bids are due April 14, with a first selection expected to take place ten days later....
FRANCE: Six banks vie for France Télévisions Publicité sale
Six banks, including Rothschild and Société Générale, have expressed interest in advising France Télévisions Publicité (FTP) to sell a stake in its company. According to media reports, Bryan Garnier, Oddo, Ricol, Lasteyrie & Associés and Clipperton F...
DENMARK: Kennet Goes Viral
UK private equity firm Kennet has invested E6.5m in GoViral, a Danish start-up that helps companies distribute advertising online. The four-year-old company says the funding represents its first institutional backing....
DENMARK: Printing firm goes down
Elbo Grafisk has had to shut down its brand new and modern printing plant, known as Elbo Print, less than two years after it was first unveiled. The plant was touted as Scandinavia's most innovative and ecological plant: it notably did not use any oi...
FRANCE: NRJ invites TV and radio firms to Towercast's capital
Struggling to find investors, NRJ Group is now turning to TV channels and radio to take a portion of capital in its tower business Towercast. NRJ Group hired BNP Paribas a year ago to sell the business, but media reports say the offers it received fr...
FRANCE: TF1 in talks with AB Group for DTT purchase
TF1 is reportedly in talks with AB group to buy all the shares that it does not already own in DTT free-to-air channels, TMC and NT1, according to local media reports. The negotiations are said to also include AB TV's content portfolio but not its ca...
FRANCE: Japanese partner takes over Infogrames distribution venture
Atari's parent group Infogrames has decided to sell its 66% stake in Distribution Partners to joint venture partner Namco Bandai. The acquisition is expected to be worth around E40m, based on an enterprise value of E60m. Infogrames first sold 34% of ...
FRANCE: Orange Sport on hold
France Telecom's Orange decided to suspend the commercialisation of its sports channel after failing to overturn a court ruling condemning it of uncompetitive behaviour. The ruling of February 23 orders Orange to pay a fine of E50,000 per day unless ...
FRANCE: Le Monde forced to recapitalise?
French nationwide daily Le Monde has reportedly told its staff that it would have to recapitalise the company by 2010. According to unconfirmed media reports, the group said a recapitalisation would help it pay back a two-year E25m loan it is said to...
IRELAND: Consortiums vie for JP newspapers
Johnston Press has shortlisted three groups to make final-round bids for its 13 regional titles in Eire....
IRELAND: Setanta attempts to woo cash injection
Pay television broadcaster Setanta has staged further talks with private equity houses as it attempts to secure around £100m to boost its ailing balance sheet....
ITALY: Seat Pagine launches E200m cap hike at 98% discount
Directories group Seat Pagine announced on March 26 that its E200m rights issue would be priced at E0.106 per share - a discount of 98% from the previous day's closing price of E5.96. The company admitted that the low price was chosen to ensure that ...
ITALY: Italy to auction five new digital channels
Italy's telecoms regulator AGCOM plans to carry out an auction to assign five new digital channels ahead of the country's transition from analogue signals. Two of these channels will be offered to new players only, while the other two will be open to...
NORWAY: Schibsted drops dividend while CEO resigns
Kjell Aamot has decided to step down from his 20-year tenure as CEO of Schibsted, Scandinavia's largest newspaper publishing group, by April 2010. His resignation follows a record net loss of E72.7m for 2008, which led the group to unveil a NKr1bn (E...
PORTUGAL: TV auction reaches dead end
Portugal's communication regulator has decided to cancel the tender for the fifth national TV licence after saying that the two candidates, Mediaset's Telecinco and ZON II, failed to meet the necessary legal and technical requirements....