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Robert Marich
Disney Denies speculation that it may sell 10 ABC-owned TV stations
Submitted by Benton Foundation on August 17, 2008 - 7:16pmLast updated: August 17, 2008 - 7:16pm
"The 10 O&Os [owned-and-operated stations] are the last bastion of distribution-oriented assets Disney has left, for which they receive no credit in their stock price," said an investment research note from Caris & Co.
Analyst Discounts Satellite TV Merger Buzz
Submitted by Benton Foundation on July 24, 2008 - 7:04pmLast updated: July 24, 2008 - 7:04pm
Now that the duopoly in satellite radio is about to get regulatory approval for a merger, Wall Street is pondering whether the satellite-TV duopoly of Dish Network and DirecTV might someday combine, too.
Post-Newsweek Buying NBCU's Miami Station
Submitted by Benton Foundation on July 16, 2008 - 7:19amLast updated: July 28, 2008 - 5:40pm
NBC Universal is poised to sell its Miami station, WTVJ-TV, to Post-Newsweek Stations, which already owns the ABC affiliate in the same market. The unusual combination of two major market affiliates would seem to be possible because of the unusually large Spanish-speaking population in southern Florida.
NBCU’s Weather Vein
Submitted by Benton Foundation on July 13, 2008 - 3:06pmNBC Universal has two jobs once it completes its buyout of The Weather Channel: raising anemic carriage fees received by TWC’s flagship basic-cable network and untangling a web of conflicting corporate allegiances.
NBCU, Equity Firms Buy The Weather Channel
Submitted by Benton Foundation on July 6, 2008 - 8:31pmNBC Universal and two financial partners reached an agreement Sunday to buy The Weather Channel for an undisclosed price around $3.5 billion. The buyers include private-equity outfits Bain Capital and Blackstone Group, which will help to pay for the deal and presumably will be bought out later by lead partner NBCU.
NBCU Enters Exclusive Talks for Weather Channel
Submitted by Benton Foundation on June 16, 2008 - 8:07amA consortium led by NBC Universal said late Friday that it started exclusive negotiations to buy The Weather Channel, shortly after Time Warner pulled out of the auction because pricing concerns.
Primaries' TV Victors
Submitted by Benton Foundation on June 16, 2008 - 8:03amCable TV news networks were able to parlay the election-induced ratings bump into a 10% year-over-year revenue jump since October 2007, according to research firm SQAD. Buoyed by the long and high-profile race for the Democratic nomination between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the ad dollar increases for CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC significantly outperformed the 3% average ad revenue hike across all basic cable networks for the same period.
Nielsen Finds Drop in Over-the-Air Channels
Submitted by Benton Foundation on June 6, 2008 - 9:46pmThe number of over-the-air TV channels available to U.S. households declined, according to Nielsen estimates released Friday. TV households averaged 17.0 broadcast channels in 2007, down from 17.5 in 2006 and this compares to 13.5 in 2000.
Univision Seeks Retrans Riches
Submitted by Benton Foundation on June 3, 2008 - 7:44amTop-ranked Hispanic broadcaster Univision Communications unveiled a strategy Monday to opt for retransmission-consent payments from multichannel-TV platforms instead of electing for must-carry.
Cablevision Enlarges News Push with Newsday Buy
Submitted by Benton Foundation on May 12, 2008 - 8:08pmLast updated: May 13, 2008 - 2:01pm
Cablevision Systems doubled up its news footprint on Long Island in suburban New York by firming a $650 million definitive agreement Monday to buy a 97% stake in local daily newspaper Newsday.
