Viacom Eyes Prospect Of ITV Takeover
Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom, refused to rule out a bid for ITV at the Royal Television Society (RTS) dinner in London last night.
Redstone was the keynote speaker at the dinner to present RTS Fellowships to Janie Grace, the controller of children’s programmes at ITV and Steve Hewlett, the Director of Programmes at Carlton Television.
According to The Guardian, Mr Redstone has more than a passing interest in ITV. “We are impressed with the opportunity,” he said. “We would first have to do a lot of due diligence and make sure any deal would refund dollars to our shareholders from day one. We look at all these assets but I am not ready to say we are buyers but I am not ready to say we are not.”
Earlier this week, Redstone visited Downing Street to discuss the implications of the impending Communications Bill which proposes lifting the restrictions on foreign ownership of UK media assets. In essence, this means that non-EU companies will be allowed to take a controlling stake in ITV or Channel 5 for the first time.
Opponents of foreign ownership claim that US majors would pack ITV full of their own product if they were given free rein over the network. Meanwhile, independent producers have alleged that key UK media individuals are ducking out of the argument as it will be US media owners filling their pockets and providing their bonuses in the future.
However, those who support the change have argued that without US investment, the UK would not have a cable or satellite TV industry beyond the state-funded BBC. Moderates would like to see a reciprocal relationship whereby US media markets are also liberalised to facilitate UK ownership. Nonetheless, analysts have questioned the practicalities of this proposal, claiming UK media groups do not have the same financial clout as big US conglomerates such as AOL Time Warner.
Viacom www.viacom.com
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