UTV buys Talksport (amongst other stations)

Richard

From MediaGuardian:

UTV buys Wireless Group

Dan Milmo
Tuesday May 10, 2005
The Guardian

Ulster TV yesterday confirmed that it had agreed to buy the Wireless Group, owner of the TalkSport station, in a £98.2m deal.

The recommended offer means Kelvin MacKenzie, chairman and chief executive of the group, will leave the business that he helped to buy for £15.5m nearly seven years ago. However, the former Sun editor's disappointment will be sweetened by a cheque worth £6.1m for his 6.4% stake in the business and a payoff of about £800,000.

UTV's acquisition followed a failed management buyout attempt by Mr MacKenzie. Frustrated by the City's lack of enthusiasm for the talk radio genre, he tried to secure private equity backing to take the group private, but talks failed, allowing UTV to pounce.

Mr MacKenzie's hands-on approach has helped foster a perception that the Wireless Group and TalkSport in particular will struggle without him at the helm.

John McCann, chief executive of UTV, said he had not met the Wireless Group boss to discuss his future, but he did not expect him to stay.

"I would have difficulty believing that any one individual is indispensable to a company. I am not indispensable. And as talented as Kelvin is, I don't believe that he is indispensable."

Mr McCann said he expected UTV, best known as the owner of the ITV franchise for Northern Ireland, to remain a diverse media group. As well as owning a profitable internet business, UTV is a major player in radio in the Republic of Ireland. "I do not see why radio and TV cannot sit very comfortably together. There is no reason why TV has to go and we become a radio player."

Mr McCann brushed off concerns over TalkSport's AM analogue licence, which broadcasts a less than pristine signal and the competitive threat of the BBC's Radio Five Live station. Although AM is a lower quality bandwidth than FM, it is only an issue for music-driven rather than speech stations, he said.

Mr McCann dismissed the BBC threat and pointed to the performance of Ulster Television in Northern Ireland, where it outperforms BBC Northern Ireland in peak time.

"We compete with a better resourced BBC in Northern Ireland and we beat them year-in year-out."

Richard

It looks like UTV are turning into a major player in the Radio Industry, right across the British Isles.

But it does beg the question - Is the name "Ulster Television" suitable for the company these days, given its diverse interests? Wouldn't "Ulster Media Group" or "UTV Media Group" be more suitable?

BuffyBot

Well they do go by the name UTV rather than Ulster Television now, and the corporate name is UTV PLC, so I think they've got it covered for the moment. Definitely diversifying though, which is a good thing - the broader base they have, the less chance of them being gobbled up by ITV

Richard

BuffyBot wrote:

and the corporate name is UTV PLC

I hadn't realised they'd changed the official name of the company - as the last time I checked the Yellow Pages it still was "Ulster Television". But checking Yell.com now, it is definately UTV and nothing else.

Still think "UTV Media Group" would be a better name, to reflect its substantial non-TV holdings.

DMC

It'll be a bit like ATV Networks Ltd.

icdg

BuffyBot wrote:

Well they do go by the name UTV rather than Ulster Television now, and the corporate name is UTV PLC

The trading name may be UTV, and they like to call themselves UTV plc. But as of 13th May 2005 (Friday), the registered company name is still Ulster Television plc. The Northern Ireland Registar of Companies doens't have a web search like the GB or ROI CROs, but UTV issued a Stock Exchange Annoucement (see uk-wire.com) under that name on Friday.

For a name change to be made, they need to change their Articles of Association, which needs to be passed as a resolution at their AGM, which is usually in early summer.

I would suspect that there will be a name change at some point though...

Richard

icdg wrote:

The Northern Ireland Registar of Companies doens't have a web search like the GB or ROI CROs, but UTV issued a Stock Exchange Annoucement (see uk-wire.com) under that name on Friday.

Scoot allows you to look up companies, including ones from NI. See http://www.scoot.co.uk/company/company.asp?ae=&a=&cp=Ulster+Television&s=V2C&sid=&sno=&st=1&