Unsurprisingly, the recently published Communications White Paper dominated debate on the UK media market at Dow Jones’ Fourth Annual European Media and Entertainment Summit on Tuesday.
The widely aired view was that the media industry should get ready for a Sky-BBC duopoly in years to come – Rupert Murdoch would buy into terrestrial TV via Channel 5, re-brand as Sky and use a mix of football and the Simpsons to rapidly overtake ITV.
Emily Bell, former business editor of the Observer and now editor-in-chief of Guardian Unlimited was most forthright. “The RTL sale [of Channel 5] to Rupert is a done deal. Otherwise the ownership changes in the White Paper are illogical. I can’t see ITV and Channel 4 being more than marginal players long-term.”
Earlier in the conference, Adam Singer, group chief executive of Telewest had spoken along similar lines. “Murdoch could eclipse ITV if he acquires Channel 5. Look at what he has done with Fox in a [more competitive] US market against established players.”
“Channel 4 will be privatised and marginalised” predicted media journalist Kate Bulkley, while Nigel Walmsley, former chairman of Carlton TV mused over the channel: “I don’t know what it is, but privatised – with the same character, but access to capital markets, it would make for a more vigorous and robust model.”
As to ITV, Bell was convinced RTL would depart Channel 5 (in which it currently owns a 65% stake) and buy into Granada, but Buckley saw Disney as a strong bet to take over ITV – possibly on a platform that included RTL and even Microsoft.
Dr Thomas Hesse, executive VP, Corporate Strategy at Bertelsmann, was also on the platform and gave RTL’s view: “It’s too early to comment on our likelihood to buy into ITV, but I would say that the two ITV companies are very highly valued at the moment, and a deal may not represent good value for shareholders. We are very happy with our Channel 5 stake,currently.”
The European Media and Entertainment Summit is a Dow Jones conference in association with PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
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