Broadcasting

Review: How Murdoch’s news revolution devoured him

22 Sep 2017

The play “Ink” dramatises the tycoon’s populist assault on Britain’s cloistered media after buying the Sun in 1969. It’s a deft history of the press culture that eventually led to the phone hacking scandal. These days Rupert Murdoch’s empire is the one at risk of disruption.

Murdochs pay price for governance scandals

12 Sep 2017

Fox’s bid for Sky may be delayed after a minister questioned whether phone-hacking and harassment scandals could hurt broadcasting standards. It raises the risks of an awkward investigation. Worse, the UK’s volatile politics could shift further against Fox owner Rupert Murdoch.

ProSieben flags slow-motion crisis for European TV

29 Aug 2017

Media stocks sagged after the German broadcaster cut ad-revenue forecasts for its main market. The optimistic reading is that a few big advertisers are holding back. But the divergence between buoyant GDP growth and sluggish TV ad spend points to the sector’s structural decline.

Discovery’s cable deal rests on rosy assumptions

31 Jul 2017

The producer of “Shark Week” is buying Food Network and HGTV owner Scripps for $14.6 bln. Cost savings won’t cover the premium, and getting distributors to pay up for more content will be a hard sell in a churning media market. The Scripps family is wise to take mostly cash.

ITV takeover is increasingly plausible plot twist

26 Jul 2017

The UK broadcaster, which recently named easyJet’s Carolyn McCall as its next CEO, is 15 pct cheaper than three months ago. A bidder like Liberty Global could now make a decent return – but would have to brave the risk of a further slowdown in the free-to-air TV ad market.

EasyJet’s McCall has choice of turbulence at ITV

6 Jul 2017

The airline boss is tipped to pilot the UK broadcaster, according to a newspaper. A digitally savvy outsider would be useful at a company that faces slowing ad revenue and costly content wars. But steering an incumbent rather than a disruptor will be more challenging.

Cable guys’ Sprint lurch bound for crossed wires

27 Jun 2017

Comcast and Charter are in talks with the $33 bln U.S. mobile carrier that may include a range of options, from the use of airwaves to an acquisition. Wherever they end up, a ménage-à-trois involving moguls John Malone, Brian Roberts and Masayoshi Son could prove ungainly.

IPO puts Altice USA’s best program behind it

22 Jun 2017

Bankers directed a flawless show for the public offering of the Dutch-based cable-TV company’s American business. Altice USA now trades at a higher multiple than Charter and Comcast yet has more onerous debt and no clear path to expand. Shareholders may want to change channels.

Vivendi’s Havas deal hangs on new media logic

16 May 2017

The French media group reckons the convergence of advertising, distribution and content justifies its 3.9 bln euro offer for the ad firm. Yet the numbers don’t add up without heroic assumptions, and Havas customers may not take kindly to the new arrangement.

BT valuation gap will outlast post-scandal reset

11 May 2017

The 30 bln pound UK telco is cutting jobs and executive bonuses after an accounting mess and a profit warning tanked its shares. The moves clean up the past, but BT's future depends heavily on regulators. That should keep the incumbent trading at a discount to nimbler rivals.

Harry Potter conjures Japanese growth for Comcast

1 Mar 2017

The U.S. cable giant is paying $2.3 bln to buy out Goldman Sachs and other partners in Universal Studios Japan. The theme-park operator's success highlights a part of the Japanese economy where growing domestic consumption is no chimera. A boom in tourism helps too.

Hollywood’s Oscar glow could be dimmed by China

24 Feb 2017

Some $5 bln from the People's Republic has been pumped into U.S. movie production since 2014. The infusion has been a big help as studio margins shrink. A Beijing crackdown on financing presents a threat, however, and could mean more belt-tightening after Tinseltown's big night.

Uber’s missteps add up to revenue disruption

21 Feb 2017

The car-hailing firm hired a former top U.S. government lawyer to probe claims of sexual harassment. That's potentially serious. It's also another business risk. Already on the back foot with urbanites, CEO Travis Kalanick may need to start asking more questions first.

LeEco’s $2 bln rescue rewards bad habits

16 Jan 2017

Property developer Sunac is ploughing funds worth more than half its market value into the overstretched TVs-to-electric cars group led by billionaire Jia Yueting. The partnership makes Jia's earlier pledge to slow down sound unconvincing, and could lead Sunac astray too.

Redstones take media M&A to new channel

12 Dec 2016

Sumner and his daughter Shari have nixed their proposal to merge CBS and Viacom. The Murdochs' bid for Sky and AT&T's deal for Time Warner have ignited the industry's animal spirits. That has raised the prospect that reuniting the two media firms would rob CBS of a better offer.

Mega-M&A risks morphing into breakups by command

11 Nov 2016

Donald Trump railed against AT&T's $85 bln planned tie-up with Time Warner, wants to rip apart Comcast-NBC and may have a beef with large banks. If he follows up his campaign rhetoric with combative antitrust appointments, U.S. corporate giants may start getting smaller.

Time Warner’s sale to AT&T obscures future hurdles

2 Nov 2016

The HBO operator handily beat quarterly expectations as it prepares for its $85 bln sale to the telephone company. Still, small signs serve as a warning for the buyer. Chief among these is the long-term sustainability of cable fees from its powerful Turner networks division.

A hands-off CBS-Viacom tie-up might have a chance

12 Oct 2016

The Redstones want to crunch their two media companies back into a $40 bln combo with CBS boss Les Moonves at the helm. His ability to turn around the ailing Viacom piece may hinge on whether he can successfully negotiate a meddle-free policy from the controlling shareholders.

TV broadcaster takes another wishful spin

7 Sep 2016

Tegna split from newspaper publisher Gannett last year hoping to lift its valuation. It didn't work as planned, but the company is now trying the same thing with auto-sales website Cars.com. Such financial engineering should work in theory. Markets sometimes have other ideas.

Fox settlements another price for poor governance

6 Sep 2016

Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox settled a high-profile lawsuit against former TV boss Roger Ailes as accusations of his sexual peccadilloes snowball. Like the phone-hacking scandal in the UK, it's a result of lax oversight abetted by a dual-class share structure.