Media & Marketing: The battle for KFM, the only commerical radio station in Co Kildare, is starting to hot up only a week after some major shareholders announced they were prepared to sell their 55 per cent stake.
East Coast Radio, based in Wicklow, is already a 12 per cent shareholder in KFM and next Tuesday its board meets to discuss the prospect of buying a larger share. Among the shareholders in East Coast is Denis O'Brien's Communicorp, which is one of the largest radio groups in the Republic.
Just to complicate matters further, East Coast was itself offered for sale some months ago and a sales memorandum was circulated by Merrion Stockbrokers.
While descibed as a "beating the bushes" exercise, the reluctance of Communicorp (which has a 26 per cent stake) to sell probably scuppered any chances of a deal.
Meanwhile, Dublin's Country and WLR are two other stations which have been the subject of sales rumours in recent months.
Into this malestrom of selling and would-be selling comes Phantom FM.
The station hits the Dublin airwaves on October 31st promising a "mixture of rock and independent music aimed at 18-34 year olds living in Dublin". U2 manager Paul McGuinness is among the station's backers.
It has hired Independent Radio Sales (IRS) Limited to sell advertising for the station. This company has been one of the biggest beneficiaries from the expansion of the radio sector over recent years.
It now represents 16 stations in the State, which is aproximately half of those licenced by the BCI. Despite the lengthy client list, however, the company has struggled to make a profit, posting a pretax loss of €20,620 in the year ended May 31st, 2005.
Business appetite
The appetite among elite European businessmen and women for financial coverage is increasing, according to a new survey by research company Ipsos Mori.
The survey polled thousands of businessmen and women in 16 countries across Europe and registered an increase in MP3 ownership and a rise in online spending among those polled.
The study has also highlighted a growing demand for business news in print, online and on television among the continent's business elite, with the international business press viewed as a powerful tool for reaching high earners by advertisers.
In terms of international titles measured in the survey, the Financial Times topped European newspapers in terms of reaching this group, followed by the International Herald Tribune and the Wall Street Journal Europe.
All eyes on game
It may have been painful to watch, but the implosion of Steve Staunton's Ireland team last Saturday evening gave TV3 one of its highest viewing audiences of the year to date.
The only programme which managed to get more viewers for the station last week was Coronation Street. The average audience for the Cyprus game was 385,000, although it peaked at 599,000 at one point.
Not surprisingly, the game was mainly watched by male viewers, but there was an almost 38 per cent female audience, which is higher than usual for most football games.
TV3 announced it had won the rights back in April following the conclusion of deals with local broadcasters who own the rights.
While the Cyprus game gave the station a boost, its next set of rights may not be so easy to sell advertising on - Ireland play international minnows San Marino in February.
Freesheet follies
Dublin's two freesheets - Metro and Herald AM - have taken various initiatives to ensure their products do not end up scattered all over the streets. But the sheer number of vendors handing out the papers may become a problem in the long term.
In London, where Metro has been distributed for several years, the borough of Kensington and Chelsea is forcing the freesheets to slash the number of vendors they use to distribute free newspapers on the streets.
At the moment it is the only city council taking such a step, but this may move to other areas.
A council spokesman explained that the vendors are becoming a problem on narrow pavements and can come close to harassing people in their enthusiasm to give out the freesheets. Licences may also be required for vendors in future.
