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The head of the National Association of Broadcasters has sent a letter to Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin, asking him to end the attempt to merge Sirius with XM Satellite Radio.
In the letter, NAB president and CEO David Rehr accused Karmazin of making poor business decisions such as giving Howard Stern a multimillion dollar deal, and said that Sirius is seeking a “government bailout” for operational and financial missteps, reports Mediaweek.
The letter was prompted by Karmazin’s comments during a Lehman Bros. conference on wireless investment, says NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton. At the event, Karmazin said that the NAB’s lobbying to block the deal was disgraceful, and accused the NAB of paying various groups to publish studies that show why the merger would be bad for consumers.
Rehr did admit to paying experts, or, as he put it, “to identifying antitrust experts who have examined the proposed merger and determined that it will harm consumers and competition, and compensating these individuals for publishing their conclusions.” But, he says, more than enough consumer comments have been filed with the FCC to support his view that the merger should be denied.
Katz Media Group has added another new client, Lincoln Financial Media, and will sell ad time on the company’s 15 stations beginning immediately.
Katz also added CBS Radio and Entercom last week, picking them off from Interep’s list.
Katz has also…
Last week, Aegis Group CEO Robert Lerwill resigned unexpectedly, sparking speculation that a takeover may be on the horizon.
Lerwill stepped down officially today (Monday), with Aegis chairman John Napier taking over his duties on an interim basis, writes MediaPost. People…
Out-of-home companies are bracing for the recession like everyone else, but they may not feel the sting as badly as other media.
Though the third quarter brought negative growth to the nation’s three largest OOH companies - Clear Channel Outdoor,…
The 82nd annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade pulled an average 12.6 rating/26 share on Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 27, according to Nielsen.
That was 8% higher than its telecast last year, Mediaweek writes. NBC estimated that a total 44.7 million viewers…
Top American non-luxury auto brands received higher ratings and less negative comments from online consumers than competing Japanese brands, according to an analysis of consumer opinions collected from automotive review websites by Biz360, MarketingCharts reports.
The research, which aggregated a year’s…
Email, news gathering and paying bills continue to be the most widely used online activities among U.S. adults, but downloading TV programs, watching videos and making web phone calls posted the biggest overall growth, according to data from Mediamark Research…
