Readers:

In order to understand the western media, in terms of ownership, power,
influence, coverage, ratings etc, I read the "MediaGuardian" on the Internet
every day; and needless to say, I always find it informative. While reading
it this afternoon, I came across the article below which I am forwarding in
the hope that some of you might find it useful.

I recommend that this useful web page to you: www.mediaguardian.co.uk

Ebrima Ceesay

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FROM SEATTLE TO STAINES, MURDOCH RULES THE WORLD

DirecTV deal confirms Rupert Murdoch as the most powerful man in television,
reaching more than 110 million viewers across four continents

By Owen Gibson
Thursday April 10, 2003


Murdoch: only Africa remains untouched by my TV dynasty

With the purchase of America's DirecTV network, Rupert Murdoch has been
confirmed as TV's most powerful man in the world with the capacity to reach
more than 110 million viewers across four continents.

With a satellite network stretching from Saigon to Seattle via Staines and
Sydney, News Corp is in the unique position of owning both of the major
pay-TV broadcasters as well as some of the top TV channels and production
outfits across the globe. Only Africa remains untouched by the Murdoch TV
dynasty.

Mr Murdoch even reaches countries like Vietnam and the tiny Pacific island
of Guam where he can count 65,000 subscribers in hotels and in the US
military base to his Star TV Asia service.

Its broadcasting empire now stretches across the US, the UK, Italy and much
of Asia, China, Latin America and Australia.

It seems hard to credit that 18 months ago City analysts and industry
commentators were asking whether we were witnessing the end of the age of
the media mogul.

With Leo Kirch, Jean-Marie Messier and Thomas Middelhoff - all men in the
Murdoch mould - falling on their swords, many outside News Corp were
wondering whether the original mogul was running out of steam as he entered
his eighth decade.

With News Corp profits suffering as a result of the downturn hitting all
media giants and his old foe Charlie Ergen having trumped him in the race
for DirecTV, America's largest satellite broadcaster, Murdoch's star seemed
to be in the descendent.

But you write Mr Murdoch off at your peril and the deals of the last two
weeks alone, with EC regulators allowing him to buy Telepiu in Italy and Fox
sealing the DirecTV deal in the States, show that there's plenty of life in
the old dog yet.

After three years, the 72-year-old has proved he still has what it takes to
pull off a sensational deal that escaped through his fingers twice before.

His long-cherished Sky Global dream of owning a satellite distribution
network that spanned the world, which originally collapsed two and a half
years ago amid tumbling stock prices and regulatory concerns, looks to be
very much back on.

Apart from perhaps Ted Turner in pre-AOL Time Warner days, no other
personality has so forcefully stamped his personality on a media company in
the way Mr Murdoch has. With DirecTV, Mr Murdoch refused to give up his
tenacious pursuit of the quarry even after Echostar chief Mr Ergen looked to
have snatched the prize from his grasp in October 2001.

The eventual collapse of that deal was due in no small part to News Corp's
relentless lobbying of competition authorities in the US, who eventually
ruled that Echostar should not be allowed to buy its only rival.

Analysts are now predicting that the hardball approach that allowed BSkyB
see off its pay-TV competitors in the UK will be transported wholesale to
the US.

As such, they expect News Corp to walk a regulatory tight rope in juggling
the prices it charges other cable platforms for its Fox News, Fox Sports and
Fox Family channels while also looking to undercut them through its own
DirecTV package prices.

Similarly, he will take on the cable companies by introducing innovations
such as interactive programming and set-top boxes capable of recording onto
their hard drive.

The importance of the DirecTV deal to Fox's position in the US market cannot
be overestimated. No longer will Mr Murdoch have to go cap in hand to his
cable rivals to persuade them to take his networks but will have negotiating
leverage of his own.

News Corp's position is not unique. AOL Time Warner also owns film studios
and cable networks but, wary of regulators and with uncertainty over the
chain of command, the businesses operate at arm's length.

Mr Murdoch, on the other hand, won't be afraid to play off one part of the
business against another if he thinks there are gains to be made.

News Corp declares it will comply with open access rules, pledging to offer
any of Fox's programming to other pay-TV operators at the same price, but as
we've seen in the UK this doesn't necessarily mean that it won't leverage
pricing to the benefit of its own platform.

As one analyst told the New York Times today: "He can say, you do this - it
may be to the detriment of one piece of News Corp, but you do it because it
is a greater good for the other piece of News Corp."

Perhaps more than any other single deal he's agreed over the past few years,
the DirecTV deal represents a personal triumph for Mr Murdoch, particularly
after the humiliation of seeing it so publicly snatched from his grasp 18
months ago.

The US cable giants such as Comcast were bullish yesterday about the
appearance of News Corp's heavy artillery on their pay-TV lawn, pointing out
their higher subscriber levels and superior technology.

But they'd do well to glance through the last few years of pay-TV history on
this side of the Atlantic, which is littered with the burned-out shells of
those companies who have taken on Mr Murdoch and lost.



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