ONE MORE THING

O'Brien back on O'Reilly's case; Setanta in TV title race; off day for Merrill Lynch; Paddy Power flies low; monitoring the media; and yet another TV channel. Ciarán Hancocklooks closer

O'Brien criticises INM's net losses

DENIS O'BRIEN continues to stick the boot into Sir Anthony O'Reilly, this time through the pages of the Daily Mail.

In an interview published in the British edition of the Daily Mailyesterday, O'Brien described Independent News Media (INM) as the British Leyland of the media industry. "It has some great assets, but is in a strategic no-man's land."

O'Brien, who has spent more than €300 million building his 25 per stake in INM, took a swipe at the media group's internet strategy.

"Only around 4 per cent of their revenues are coming from the internet, including technology investments. Some of the best newspaper companies in the United States have got up to 15 per cent."

The mobile-phone billionaire also slammed INM's investment in the lossmaking Independentnewspaper titles in London.

"INM has lost much more than £100 million on the Independentover the years," he said. "If they're willing to lose money, it should be on developing a proper online strategy."

Sir Anthony has always described the Independentas an excellent "calling card" in the UK.

Not so, said O'Brien. "A business has to be successful to be a calling card," he told the Mail, which also happens to be one of INM's biggest rivals.

O'Brien rejected the suggestion that his stakebuilding in INM is because he is sore at having lost out to the Sir Anthony-led Valentia consortium in the battle to acquire Eircom earlier this decade.

"Look, I've only met the man once. Business is business and you try to win as many battles as you can, but you can't win them all," he said.

So will O'Brien mount a takeover bid for INM? "My wife doesn't even know my intentions," he said, "but I'll remain on the shareholder register until things change.

"As sure as it'll rain in the west of Ireland tomorrow, these changes will come. They have to do it."

Disney in training for TV football rights bid

IT LOOKS like Irish pay TV broadcaster Setanta Sports will have be on top form if it is to bag the rights to live English Premier League football next year.

Bidding for the prized football rights, which are jointly held by Setanta and BSkyB, kicks off in January and Walt Disney has stated its intention to field a team.

On a visit to London this week, Disney chief executive Robert Iger said its ESPN sports broadcasting arm would probably line up a bid.

"I know they [ESPN] will look at the Premier League rights again, both individually and in partnership with others," Iger said.

The Disney boss said the recent Euro 2008 tournament had proved popular, with Disney airing games on its mainstream ABC network in the US.

Setanta broke BSkyB's monopoly on live rights to the Premier League last season by paying £392 million (€492 million) to show 46 games a year. Sky shelled out £1.3 billion for 92 live games a season. The deals expire at the end of the 2009/2010 season.

Setanta has since won rights to show FA Cup matches and England internationals. It is now a big player in pay sports broadcasting.

In spite of the credit crunch, the Premier League rights are expected to fetch a higher price next time round.

Netting a second live rights deal is seen as crucial for Setanta's backers if they are to flip the company on and make a return on their considerable investment.

Ironically, Disney is seen as the most likely buyer of Setanta. It has deep pockets and Iger said this week it was looking at companies that "fit well" with its Disney and ESPN brands.

Disney is no stranger to Setanta, having acquired NASN, which broadcasts US sports in Europe, from the Irish group in 2006. Disney has been linked recently with ITV, which is losing viewers and struggling for advertising.

A move for Setanta might make more sense.

New Big Brother

BIG BROTHER may soon be outsourced as part of the Government's plan to put the brakes on public spending. Tenders have been invited for the provision of a media-monitoring service for the Government and its various ministries.

At present, a communications unit based in the Department of the Taoiseach monitors all media for any mention of matters to do with the Government, Ministers and their departments. It has a staff of four civil servants, who are no doubt rushed off their feet, given the proliferation of media sources now available.

Tenders received will be reviewed to see if they might provide greater value for money. The contract could prove to be a nice earner for someone, although those tendering will have to be careful that they don't convince the Government to maintain the status quo.

Harvey channels energies into new TV service

THE BROADCASTING Commission of Ireland had a busy board meeting on Monday.

In addition to awarding the Dublin classic rock licence to Radio Nova, the regulator also gave David Harvey's City Channel the green light to launch a fourth television service.

To be called Channel South, it will take to the air in November and broadcast local programming to homes in Cork, Limerick and parts of Kerry, Clare and south Tipperary.

Harvey launched City Channel in 2005 with a Dublin station and has added services in Galway and Waterford since then. The stations are available in about 450,000 homes.

Plans are also well advanced to launch a version of City Channel in Budapest before Christmas.

Harvey concedes that the advertising market is tough and City Channel, which is 35 per cent owned by Colorado-based media group Liberty Global, continues to be loss-making.

"We'll have a profitable year next year for sure," he told One More Thing.

"We're having profitable months and, if we keep things ticking over this year, we'll be happy."

Harvey declined to quantify the size of City Channel's losses.

City Channel's last filed accounts show it had accumulated losses of €640,000 at the end of 2006.

The company recently outsourced its agency advertising sales to TV3 in an attempt to boost revenues. "We're having a good winter in terms of bookings but we're finding it tough like everybody else at the moment," Harvey added. "It's a case of shoulder to the wheel."

Merrill's day trip

MAYBE IT was the recession or the bad weather, but Merrill Lynch has abandoned plans to organise a one-day "investor trip" to Dublin on September 24th to meet a "stellar" line-up that included management at the main Irish banks, economists and property advisers.

The investment bank said it was due to a "lack of interest".

Merrill Lynch is "very cautious" about Irish banks, with its financial analyst, Phil Ingram, recently cutting 2009 earnings forecasts on Irish banks by up to 42 per cent. In a note to interested parties about the visit, Merrill Lynch said: "Clearly we still think there is money to be made selling or shorting Irish banks, so if you would like to join us please let me know."

We should probably be relieved that Merrill's clients don't seem to share this view.

Paddy Power wager fails to take off

WE ALL like to see bookies taken to the cleaners by punters but there's one market that hopefully won't pay out.

On Wednesday, Paddy Power issued a press release to trumpet the fact that it was offering odds on the "next airline to crash" - a rather unfortunate choice of words given the recent Spanair tragedy. Its missive came in the wake of Spanish charter Futura grounding its aircraft in Dublin earlier this week.

The Irish bookie installed British airline Flybe and Germany's Air Berlin as favourites at 7/1 with Italy's Air One at 8/1 and Ireland's Aer Arann with others at 9/1. Aer Lingus was rated as a 40/1 bet to go bust with Ryanair slated at 80/1.

"It really is worrying times for the aviation industry and passengers," said Paddy Power spokeswoman Sharon McHugh in the release.

Indeed it is, especially for the thousands of workers involved in the aviation industry here and abroad who are worried about their jobs. Touting for bets on which of them will be next in line at the dole queue will hardly lift their spirits.

Paddy Power has a section on its website that urges its customers to "bet responsibly". It should take its own advice.