Berlin Radio Station at Risk as Mecom Buys Orkla’s German Web News Portal

Complicated media ownership structures are common in Europe. There’s usually no problem with regulators or operators until one of the partners decides to sell.

Mecom Group is a fast mover in European media deals. And it’s moving by acquisition. It’s German holding company Deutsche Zeitungsholding purchased this month web-publisher Netzeitung Group from Norwegian investment house Orkla. The company Berliner Verlag publishes Berliner Zeitung and Berliner Kurier, purchased in 2005. This spring, the company purchased the Hamburger Morgenpost. Mecom has purchased substantially all of Orkla Media’s holdings in seven countries.

Netzeitung Group publishes Netzeitung, the best-known news portal independent of a major German publishing house reaching about 600,000 visitors per month, as well as Netdoktor.de and the automobile portal Autogazette.de.

Early last year Netzeitung was awarded a Berlin radio license in a forced partnership with Motor FM. Mecom has no interest in a radio station so it announced its intention to sell its shares to Motor FM.

Not so fast, said Berlin-Brandenberg media regulator MABB. The license to operate an FM station on 100.6 FM was granted after tenuous negotiation for the specialty music format (Motor FM) to work with the specialty news provider (Netzeitung). When the ownership changes, the license – apparently – is defensterized. Netzeitung provides about 40% of the station’s content.

The MABB wants to again advertise the frequency for applicants this autumn when it also takes applicants for several other frequencies. - June 21, 2007

Keywords:Berlin radio,media deals

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