Midway Games files Chapter 11
Sumner Redstone’s sale of his controlling stake in a strangely-structured deal started a financial chain of events that has now led Midway Games to...
Journal: Q4 down for broadcasting, worse for print
Broadcasting revenue fell 6.4% in Q4 at Journal Communications, with TV down 5.5% and radio off 7.8%. For the company’s newspapers, the drop was...
New Yorkers resist soft drink tax
It’s not as if New York citizens don’t already pay a sales tax and a deposit fee on sodas, says Nelson Eusebio, Chairman of...
When did marketing become wasteful?
Recently, several companies which have received TARP funds have come under fire for certain marketing expenses. We can all acknowledge that bonuses for poor...
Redstone sees debt deal soon
In the quarterly conference call by Viacom, Sumner Redstone said he was close to a deal with his lenders to restructure the $1.6 billion of debt at National Amusements Inc. (NAI)
Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger called gift to Obama
The way BusinessWeek media critic Jon Fine sees it, the proposed merger of concert promotion giant Live Nation and ticket selling giant Ticketmaster is...
A plug from the Prez
If you blinked, you might have missed it. But NAB President/CEO David Rehr didn’t. We refer to Barack Obama’s statement, while discussing the situation...
Fairness awareness
No sooner did Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) backpedal as furiously as possible away from comments on reinstating the Fairness Doctine than Tom Harkin (D-IA) pedaled...
Analyst sees no silver lining for broadcast stocks
Wachovia analyst Marci Ryvicker certainly has a cheery outlook on the round of radio and TV quarterly conference calls getting underway
Sinclair suspends dividend
Sinclair Broadcast Group reported that Q4 revenues were down only 0.8%, but that Q1 is expected to be down in the low to mid...
Sirius XM stock in freefall on bankruptcy reports
Shareholders stand to get nothing if the satellite radio company files Chapter 11 to thwart a takeover by EchoStar. Sirius XM’s stock lost more...
Journal slashes its dividend
After the market closed on Tuesday, Journal Communications announced that its board of directors had declared a quarterly dividend of two cents per share...
Everybody majors in econ
The financial crisis has been dominating the debate in Washington, and it dominated all five media journalism categories measured by the Project for Excellence...
Muzak turning the pages of Chapter 11
Background music service Muzak is 22 days into negotiations with various creditors to restructure its debt, and is expecting progress to continue toward a...
Mixed showing for DirecTV
Subscriber additions were more than Wall Street expected – but so were costs as DirecTV reported its Q4 results. Revenues for the quarter were...