ITV

Tag: News Corp

  • News Corp takes 5% stake in web video firm Roo

    News Corp takes 5% stake in web video firm Roo

    MUMBAI: News Corp is buying a stake in Australian web video firm Roo. Ruper Murdoch’s media conglomerate is initially taking a five per cent stake, which can go up to 10 per cent if certain predetermined revenue targets are achieved.

    Roo currently manages online global video content distribution and content syndication across many of News Corp’s properties including The Times of London, and The Australian and has content syndication partnerships with FOX News Channel and Sky News.

    “We are excited to be working with News Corporation to further harness the enormous opportunity of online video across its global network of prestigious media brands,” says Roo chairman and CEO Robert Petty.

    The deal with News Corp comes less than a week after Roo, currently valued at $75 million, announced the acquisition of MyVideoDaily, a Web destination and software company.

    The reported $1.35m acquisition provides Roo with a proven search engine marketing strategy that introduces new users to the company’s portals and desktop applications.
     

  • News Corp to launch MySpace in China in a few months time

    News Corp to launch MySpace in China in a few months time

    MUMBAI: US media conglomerate News Corp is looking to launch its social networking site MySpace in China within the next few months.

    It has finalised a deal with partners, including private equity heavyweight IDG and reports indicate that News Corp will have a 50 per cent stake in the venture.

    The IDG-Accel China Growth Fund, managed by venture firm International Data Group Technology Venture Investment, will also own a stake.

    The deal, if successful, will be a positive move for News Corp which has made several attempts to tap China’s rapidly growing media market.

    But the venture will have to negotiate with China’s strict regulation of media content, as well as compromise on potentially sensitive content.

  • MySpace looking to double global presence

    MySpace looking to double global presence

    MUMBAI: News Corp’s social networking site, MySpace, plans to more than double the number of countries it will operate in by the end of the year.

    Media reports state that the goal is to have a presence in 11 countries. This includes China. The company has test-launched a service in Mexico.

    Meanwhile MySpace has sued an e-mail marketing executive for an unspecified amount of damages, saying that he and his company were behind millions of junk e-mail, or spam, messages sent to its customers’ accounts.

    MySpace filed the lawsuit against Scott Richter in US District Court in Los Angeles.

  • Telefonica puts Endemol up for sale

    Telefonica puts Endemol up for sale

    MUMBAI: Telefonica, which has a majority stake in global television format creator and distributor Endemol is looking to sell the firm.

    In India Endemol recently completed one year of existence.

    Telefonica has a 75 per cent stake in the firm. However US media conglomerate News Corp has said that it has no interest in buying Endemol. There was a report that had said that News Corp was circling around the firm.

    A News Corp spokesman described speculation of interest in Endemol as being nonsense. Executives from the Spanish telecommunications firm Telefonica are believed to be arranging a deal with Merrill Lynch to sell its majority stake in Endemol. Disney has also said that it is not interested in buying the firm. Endemol, reports indicate, has a market value of around $3.4 billion.

    The acquisition of Endemol makes sense for global media firms. It allows them to put new formats and existing endemol formats into their channels. Reports also state that Endemol’s chief creative content officer Peter Bazalgette has been touted as someone who might lead a management buyout of the company.

    But a move to lead a buyout would require him to leave Endemol’s board, something he has not indicated any desire to do.

  • Star announces Nair, Mukerjea’s exit

    Star announces Nair, Mukerjea’s exit

    MUMBAI: Lifting the lid off the worst kept secret in Indian media, Star has made it official that its two head honchos in India – Star Entertainment India CEO Sameer Nair and Star Group India CEO Peter Mukerjea – are out of the News Corp owned Pan Asian broadcaster.

    Star announced Sunday that Mukerjea would be leaving the company at the end of January while Nair will leave at the end of March. Star also announced that Star CEO designate Paul Aiello would for the present be the acting CEO of Star India.

    While Mukerjea has joined his wife Indrani’s global human resources company INX Services as chairman, the betting is on Nair’s teaming up with news major NDTV as head of its entertainment venture.

    Nair’s immediate mandate is clearly to manage the show and chaperone Kaun Banega Crorepati, which launches tonight at 9 pm with Bollywood badshah Shah Rukh Khan in the hot seat, through its 13-week run.

  • Sexual assault lawsuit filed against MySpace, News Corp

    Sexual assault lawsuit filed against MySpace, News Corp

    MUMBAI: The families of four under-aged girls have filed lawsuits against News Corp. and its MySpace.com social-networking site.

    The families claim that their daughters were sexually assaulted by adults they first met on the site.

     
    The suits, media reports state, have demanded unspecified millions of dollars in damages from MySpace and News Corp for “negligence, recklessness, fraud” and misrepresentation.

     
    MySpace.com has also announced that it would start to offer free parental notification software in a bid to appease critics who worry that the site makes it easy for children to provide too much personal information, making them easy prey for sex offenders.

    Parents will be able to use the software, named “Zephyr,” to find out what name, age and location their children use to represent themselves on MySpace, but it won’t allow parents to read their children’s e-mail or see their profile pages.

    Each of the girls was allegedly lured into meetings with men who had chatted them up on MySpace then plied them with drugs or alcohol and sexually abused them, according to the suits.

    Reports state that one of the men accused in the assaults was serving a 10-year prison sentence and the others were awaiting trials, according to lawyers for the girls.

  • Liberty Media to acquire News Corp’s DirecTV stake

    Liberty Media to acquire News Corp’s DirecTV stake

    MUMBAI: US media conglomerate News Corporation today announced that it had signed a share exchange agreement with Liberty Media.

    Under the terms of the agreement, Liberty will exchange its entire 16.3 per cent economic position (324.6 million Class A and 188 million Class B shares) in News Corporation for a 38.4 percent stake (470.4 million shares) in DirecTV, three Regional Sports Networks (FSN Northwest, FSN Pittsburgh and FSN Rocky Mountain) and $550 million of cash, subject to a working capital adjustment.

    News Corp believes the transaction will unlock tremendous value for the following reasons:The transaction will be immediately accretive to News Corporation’s earnings per share;

    News Corp will divest its stake in DirecTV at an attractive valuation on a tax-free basis, and;

    News Corporation will accomplish an approximately $11 billion stock buyback representing approximately 16 per cent of the outstanding stock.

    The share exchange agreement is subject to various regulatory approvals and an affirmative vote by a majority of holders of News Corporation’s Class B common stock, other than the Murdoch family and Liberty. If approved, the transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of calendar 2007.

    Following completion of the transaction with Liberty, News Corporation intends to redeem its stockholder rights plan and will consider eliminating its staggered board.

    With negotiations over the share exchange agreement now completed, News Corporation expects to continue its previously announced stock repurchase programme.

  • News Corp increases stake in NGC

    News Corp increases stake in NGC

    MUMBAI: US media conglomerate News Corp is acquiring NBC Universal’s 25 per cent stake in two entities that run the international operations of the National Geographic Channel (NGC).

    Media reports state that News Corp said in a regulatory filing that it was buying the stakes in NGC Network International and NGC Network (UK) for an undisclosed sum. NBC Universal is a unit of General Electric.

    The deal will increase News Corp’s stake in NGC Network International to 75 per cent, with the rest held by National Geographic Television. The British unit is now owned 25 per cent by News Corp, 25 per cent by National Geographic Television, and 50 per cent by BSkyB.

  • News Corp forms Fox Television Studios India; Deepak Segal is head

    News Corp forms Fox Television Studios India; Deepak Segal is head

    MUMBAI: Star India looks to be aiming to move a significant part of its production activities, particularly relating to format shows and advertiser funded programming (AFP), in house.

    For that purpose, News Corp’s Fox Entertainment Group has set up a wholly owned subsidiary Fox Television Studios India Pvt Ltd (FTSI) and put Star India executive vice-president content and communication Deepak Segal in charge of leading it. Segal, who is currently “on deputation” to FTSI from Star, will officially move to the new company once it is fully operational. Segal summed up the broad logic of the move by News Corp as “backward integration”.

    FTSI is setting up relevant infrastructure for creating channel, pre-production, production and post-production facilities for content and storage of content.

    The format shows produced by FTSI will have a mix of product developed in India as well as those licensed from abroad and adapted for telecast in India, Segal reveals.

    According to Segal, while FTSI’s focus is on formats and AFPs, his team is working on a narrative show as well. Queried as to when any of these shows were expected to go on air, Segal said it would only be in the next fiscal. A point of note is that Star’s financial year is from 1 July to 30 June.

    As regards the executive structure within Star following Segal’s departure, it will more or less follow the changes incorporated in July 2005 when new portfolios were created for Shailja Kejriwal as senior creative director – Star network and Harsh Rohatgi as GM – Star network.

    While Kejriwal oversees programming and on-air promotions, Rohatgi is responsible for broadcast operations, network planning and presentation.

    About the only change in terms of functionality would be that Channel [V] head honcho Amar Deb, who used to report to Segal, now reports directly in to Star Entertainment India CEO Sameer Nair.

  • News Corp cancels OJ Simpson book, TV special

    News Corp cancels OJ Simpson book, TV special

    MUMBAI: As a result of pressure from different quarters US media conglomerate News Corporation Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch has announced that the company has cancelled publication of the book If I Did It as well as the special which was to air on Fox.

    This was to have featured O.J. Simpson. In 1995 Simpson was acquitted of the murders of his wife and another man in 1995. The cancelled project was to have had him talk about how he would have done the murders.

    Murdoch said, “I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project. We are sorry for any pain this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown-Simpson.”

    Besides the victims’ families opposition came from viewers, station affiliates, advertisers, booksellers and even executives within the company. Reports state that over a dozen of Fox’s roughly 200 affiliates across the US had rejected the show and News Corp had received indications that more were likely to follow.

    Simpson was acquitted of murder charges in 1995, but a civil court found him liable for their deaths in 1997 and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages.