Emap's Irish station sale held up by regulator

Communicorp

Daniel Farey-Jones

October 09, 2007

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Emap's Irish station sale held up by regulator

LONDON - Emap's £135.5m offloading of its three Irish radio stations to Communicorp has hit a snag after Ireland's broadcast regulator blocked the sale of one of the stations.

The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland approved the sale of Donegal's Highland Radio and national station Today FM, but not that of Dublin's FM104.

Irish radio group Communicorp owns another Dublin station, 98FM, as well as national station Newstalk.

The BCI said: "The commission was not satisfied that Communicorp would not hold an undue amount of the communications media in the Dublin city and county franchise area following completion of this transaction [for FM104]."

Communicorp still needs approval from Ireland's Competition Authority to buy Highland Radio and Today FM, according to the BCI.

Communicorp is owned by Irish entrepreneur Denis O'Brien and has a portfolio of radio stations in Ireland and Central Europe.

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