Beijing Media to develop multimedia opportunities
Beijing Media Corp., the advertising arm of China's first overseas listed newspaper group, plans to develop into a multimedia company with new operations such as TV contributing about a third of total advertising revenue by the end of the decade, according to Dow Jones Newswire.
"We plan to leverage our strong customer base to develop new media businesses such as TV and billboards," said Beijing Media's Executive Director Du Min.
Beijing Media handles advertising for Beijing Youth Daily, the capital's second biggest-selling newspaper, and three other publications in the Beijing Youth Daily Group. Min said Beijing Media plans to start a number of new projects in 2005, including a television production company with a planned investment of HK$200 million. Min said that it is a good time to expand into this media as the Chinese recently relaxed investment rules governing foreign holdings in domestic TV production companies.
Other projects to be launched next year, including a Beijing weekend newspaper and several weekly magazines, will have an investment budget of HK$180 million. Min said the print-media expansion should break even in a year.
Beijing Media has also earmarked HK$200 million to acquire other media assets, including billboard advertisers.
Storm snaps top off San Diego tower; three stations knocked off air
With record rainfall in Southern California, high winds in San Diego County last week snapped off the top 180 feet of the KSON-AM KURS-AM and LPTV KBNT-TV tower and pieces of the falling tower struck about 20 cars. All three stations remained off air for days. Broadcast facilities affected included Jefferson-Pilot's KSON and Quetzal Bilingual's KURS.
WQZQ-FM Nashville goes HD radio
Nashville's WQZQ-FM is on the air with a low-powered HD Radio transmitter by Broadcast Electronics, the first FM in the city to convert to HD Radio.
"We talked about HD Radio for two years, and decided its time had come when the FCC permitted separate antennas (for the HD signal)," said Bud Walters, President of Cromwell Group, which owns 21 stations in addition to WQZQ-FM. Separate antennas spared WQZQ, a 100kW station, the cost of replacing its main high-powered transmitter and enabled it to install BE's low-powered FMi 73 transmitter specifically for HD Radio.
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