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CABLE WORLD STAFF
Barry Diller's deal to buy film assets from Seagram Co. came closer to completion when the October Films board of directors approved the sale of their company to the USA Networks mogul.
Diller's purchase of October, together with Gramercy Pictures and Polygram Film Entertainment's domestic video operation, is likely to be announced within a week, sources said.
The approval is an about-turn for the October board, some of whose members had previously vetoed a sale to Diller. October is 51% owned by Seagram's Universal Pictures, and 49% by minority shareholders.
In other news, Shaw Communications Inc. will acquire a 75% interest in Access Communications Inc. and 100% of Access Cable Television Bedford/Sackville Limited from Charles Keating.
The purchase price of approximately $167 million (subject to adjustments for long-term debt and other liabilities at closing) has been calculated on the basis of approximately 83,500 equivalent basic subscribers.
WEHCO Video will launch TVN Digital Cable Television in six of WEHCO's largest cable systems beginning July 1999, announced David Sears, TVN SVP-affiliate sales/marketing. The WEHCO agreement and additional new launches will add another 262,000 homes to TVN's subscriber base.
CommerceNet, Nielsen Media Research and NetRatings Inc., announced they are working jointly to measure how people in U.S. corporations actually use the Internet in the workplace. CommerceNet and Nielsen Media Research will design the research methodologies, and Nielsen/NetRatings, the new Internet measurement service from Nielsen Media Research and NetRatings will collect data.
Cablevision Systems Corp., the No. 6 cable-television company, will buy the nearly 4% of Madison Square Garden LP it doesn't already own for $87 million from Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. The acquisition is expected to close next month.
Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc.'s Singapore-based Japan Entertainment Television (JET) will reduce operations and supply cable television programs only to Taiwan beginning in July, sources at the major broadcasting company said. Earnings from cable TV programs have dropped because of the Asian economic crisis, the sources said.
Cable & Wireless and MediaOne Group want to sell One 2 One, their U.K. mobile phone venture worth an estimated $13.1 billion, an executive advising on the sale said... Home & Garden Television, which has distribution in all of the country's top markets except New York, will start being carried on Time Warner Cable in New York beginning this month... EchoStar Communications Corp. will present DISH Network's DISH-On-Demand movies in Dolby Digital surround sound beginning this month...Time Warner Cable of New York City and Crescent Systems, L.L.C., have signed an agreement for Crescent Systems to offer electronic payment remittance services to Time Warner Cable's more than 1.1 million New York City customers...CBS Corp. is buying King World Productions Inc., television's biggest program syndicator, distributing shows like Jeopardy and The Oprah Winfrey Show, for about $2.5 billion in stock...TCA Cable TV Inc. approved a regular quarterly cash dividend of 8 cents per share payable on April 27 to shareholders...Bresnan Communications completed the acquisition of a cable system serving approximately 14,000 customers in Buffalo, Minn...The FCC approved DirecTV's purchase of USSB's orbital slots.
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