MEDIA MARKET DATA - World Association of Newspapers

COPYRIGHTDigital Environment / Online / Digital CopyrightGlobalThe newspaper, magazine and book publishing industries have come together to explore waysto challenge the exploitation of content by search engines without fair compensation tocopyright owners. A task force of global and European publishers organizations, led byWAN, has agreed to work together to examine the options open to publishers to assert theirrights to recognition and recompense, and to ultimately improve the relationships betweencontent creators/producers and news aggregators and search engines. The group will examinewhether new standards and policies can be drafted to formalize the commercial relationshipbetween publishers and the search engines and content aggregators. It will also explore theoptions open to newspaper, book and magazine publishers, including collective action, eitherat a national or international level, together with questions regarding copyright enforcementand brand infringement. Along with WAN and the World Editors Forum, the group includesInternational Publishers Association (IPA), the International Federation of the PeriodicalPress (FIPP), the European Newspaper Publishers Association (ENPA), the EuropeanPublishers Council (EPC), the European Magazine Publishers Association (FAEP) and SPMI(French association for magazine publishers), Agence France-Presse (AFP), the association ofFrench national newspapers, SPP, and the French regional daily newspaper association,SPQR. Contact: Timothy Balding, tbalding@wan.asso.fr; Newsletter for Directors of WANMember Associations - N ° 34, February 2, 2006 MEDIA OWNERSHIPMergers / AcquisitionsIndiaBennett Coleman and Co. Ltd has proposed to buy a 6 per cent stake in SaharaOne Media andEntertainment Ltd. SaharaOne has subscribed 1,100,000 new equity shares at a price of Rs344 per share, taking the total valuation of the company to Rs 6,290 million. This aggregatesthe deal at a worth of Rs 378.4 million. The deal is subject to all mandatory approvals fromthe Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the company’s shareholders. Meanwhile, thecompany has informed the BSE and also called for an EGM to get the approval of theshareholders. Shantonu Aditya, CEO, SaharaOne Media and Entertainment Ltd, feels that thisacquisition is the coming together of two prominent media houses of the country. He says thepartnership will help SaharaOne in the long run. Aditya adds, “The SaharaOne team has beendoing really well in terms of visibility and brand revamping and in getting audience andadvertisers. This is evident from the fact that the group’s newly launched channel, Filmy, gota record number of advertisers on the day of its launch.” In the nine months ending December31, 2005, SaharaOne Media and Entertainment Ltd has made a net profit of Rs 70 million ona turnover of Rs 1,550 million, as compared to a net profit of Rs 65 million on a turnover ofRs 2,150 million in the year ended March 31, 2005. For the record, SaharaOne Media andEntertainment Ltd recently got into an ad sales pact with the religious channel, Aastha. Adityaclaims, “This dynamic partnership will see new programming on SaharaOne”, but he declines67