Media News - Friday, June 15, 2012

Televisa gets green light on controversial telecom deal

In a highly controversial decision, Mexico's antitrust regulator on Thursday conditionally approved a joint telecom venture between media giant Televisa and rival network TV Azteca's sister company Iusacell. Televisa agreed in April 2011 to purchase a 50 percent stake in cell phone company Iusacell for USD 1.6bn, which would mark Televisa's first foray into the wireless telephone business. But the Federal Competition Commission (CFC) halted the deal because of price-fixing concerns. The watchdog expressed concern that the tie-up could generate collusion between networks Televisa and TV Azteca in the setting of advertising rates for the television and telecom sectors. Televisa and Iusacell appealed the commission's ruling and on Thursday the CFC reversed its decision, clearing the way for a conditional alliance. Among the conditions imposed by the CFC, the regulator said that a broadcast license for a third national channel must be granted within two years; if not, the Iusacell partnership will be dissolved. Just last week Mexico announced the auction of two digital terrestrial channels in response to demands for more competition in the broadcast TV market. Currently, the television duopoly of Televisa and TV Azteca control a combined 95 percent of the nation's television stations. (Hollywood Reporter)

Britain Prime Minister David Cameron testifies in media inquiry

He'd already admitted that relations were too tight between politicians and Rupert Murdoch's media empire. But on Thursday, British Prime Minister David Cameron sat under oath, on the witness stand, answering questions and listening poker-faced as embarrassing evidence of his own coziness was read out loud in court. The grilling, in which a judge and the investigating lawyer often addressed him as "Mr. Cameron" and not "Prime Minister," was the latest chapter in a judicial inquiry on media ethics that he himself had initiated in light ofBritain'sshocking phone-hacking scandal. Cameron spent more than four hours testifying Thursday, a highlight of a remarkable week in which three current and former prime ministers gave sworn testimony in a London courtroom. Media watchers here were particularly eager to hear Cameron describe his relationship with media mogul Murdoch, whose favor politicians have eagerly sought for decades in Britain in hope of earning his newspapers' backing, or alternately, in fear of being targeted by them in smear or muckraking campaigns. (LA Times)

Twitter says expanded postings will show more media content

Twitter Inc. said users of its microblogging service who post links to other websites will be able to see an expanded view of content from new partner sites, such as the Wall Street Journal and MSNBC. The company, which lets users share 140-character messages, said the expanded postings will show video, photos and longer excerpts of news stories from a broader list of media partners. The service began rolling out to website and mobile users Thursday, Michael Sippey, product team director at San Francisco- based Twitter, said in a blog post. “This is going to cause people to stay on twitter.com, because all of the sudden you have a little bit more information,” said Brian Blau, an analyst at Gartner Inc. “You can read the next tweet and stay on the site, being a more valuable consumer of the site.” The service will be available on Twitter for Apple Inc.’s iPhone and for devices that use Google Inc.’s Android soon, Sippey said. The company, with more than 140 million users, expects to generate at least USD 1bn in sales in 2014, two people with knowledge of the matter have said, based on advertising demand. (Bloomberg)

Microsoft buys Yammer for USD 1.2bn

Amidst speculation of a pending deal, Microsoft has reportedly bought Yammer, a business-focused social network, for USD 1.2bn. This deal would provide Microsoft extensive social-networking tools that it could integrate into existing products for its corporate customers. Yammer, which is used by more than 200,000 companies, provides a “freemium” private social network for internal corporate use similar to Facebook. The purchase of Yammer by Microsoft could potentially add additional functionality, such as file sharing and chat, to Microsoft Office, which generates more than half of Microsoft’s annual operating income. Notably, Microsoft Office’s SharePoint already features some of these capabilities, though they are not widely used in the corporate environment, unlike Yammer. Neither party has yet to confirm the sale. (Forbes)

Russian investigator denies threatening reporter

Russia's top investigator denied Thursday that he threatened to kill an investigative reporter over a story that lambasted his agency, but apologized for an "emotional outburst" with the journalist. Novaya Gazeta, Russia's leading investigative publication, claimed Wednesday that Investigative Committee chief Gen. Col. Alexander Bastrykin took reporter Sergei Sokolov to a forest outside Moscow where he threatened to kill him and then joked that he would lead the investigation into his death. The alleged June 4 incident followed Sokolov's story that accused Bastrykin's agency of failing to punish the perpetrator of a 2010 killing of 12 people, including four children, by a gang in southern Russia. Bastrykin told the Izvestia daily Thursday he had invited the journalist to meet the team that investigated the 2010 killings - and then had a "very emotional conversation" with him. But the conversation did not take place in a forest, he insisted. Later Thursday, he met with Novaya Gazeta editor Dmitry Muratov along with other journalists and apologized for the outburst, Russian news agencies reported. Muratov accepted the apology and said "reconciliation has taken place," according to state news agency RIA Novosti. Bastyrkin later telephoned Sokolov, who is out of the country, apologized and ensured his security if he returns, news reports said. (Business Week)

New report examines revenue streams of US nonprofit media as they learn to fish for themselves

With newspapers across the US laying off hundreds of employees and looking for new business models as part of a survival strategy, a new study considers what nonprofit media must do to be sustainable. Based on a seven-year experiment by the Challenge Fund for Journalism, the study showed nonprofit news outlets must seek funding from diverse sources, use in-person networking, fundraise better, and produce a quality product if they want to be sustainable, according to the Columbia Journalism Review. The Challenge Fund for Journalism, which was formed in 2004 by the Ford, Knight, McCormick, and Ethics and Excellence in Journalism foundations, provided USD 3.6m in matching grants and services to 53 nonprofit media companies - such as the International Center for Journalists, Investigative Reporters and Editors, and the Center for Public Integrity - in order to find new revenue streams and develop better business practices to help nonprofits learn to fish for themselves. According to Learning to Fish, the study from the Challenge for Journalism Fund, the grantees were able to match the initial grant money with another USD 9.5m, and nine in 10 met their matching goals, according to the Knight Foundation's blog. "The challenge fund helped nonprofit journalism groups learn to fish where the most of the fish really live," the blog said. (Knight Center)

• Home |
• Seminars  |
• Events |
• Media Landscape |
• Newsroom|
• Media News|
• Resources

Terms of service and Privacy policy.

Copyright © 1992- 2013 European Journalism Centre. All rights reserved.

Valid XHTML and CSS.

European Journalism Centre

Sonneville-lunet 10
6221KT Maastricht
The Netherlands

Tel. : +31 43 325 40 30
Fax : +32 2 400 42 20

E-mail: info[at]ejc.net