Sharewatch W/E 26/7/95

It was another turbulent week within the television sector, with renewed speculation that mergers and takeovers would occur.

Yorkshire Tyne-Tees, a speculated target for Granada, dropped 23p on Wednesday when the takeover bid again failed to materialise. A similar situation occurred with HTV declining in price on Tuesday and Wednesday when Carlton did not make a move to buy it.

Carlton’s price on Friday finished at 448p which is weak compared to a price of 468p at the start of the week. It did rally slightly however on Thursday with rumours that it may be interested in buying Midland Independent Newspapers *(Newsline 25/07). It dropped again when Carlton denied this.

BSkyB’s price dropped slightly on Wednesday when the OFT said it was still investigating the satellite broadcaster’s position in the pay-TV market. It rallied strongly on Thursday however when it was announced that BSkyB was not considered to be operating as a monopoly *(Newsline 25/07).

* MediaTel subscribers only