Murdoch enters the fray

The Polish media market was rocked by the news that Rupert Murdoch's global media company News Corp has stepped into the market, with a 25-percent stake in a small religious broadcaster, TV Puls, which is owned by a Franciscan brotherhood.

"The Franciscan brotherhood has invited a new industry investor, i.e. News Corp Inc, to cooperate on the creation of TV Puls. As a result of these changes, [the brotherhood] now holds a majority (51.02 percent) stake while a minority stake (48.98 percent) is held by TV Inwestycje, including the Franciscan brotherhood (50 percent) and News Corp Inc (50 percent)," reads a communique issued by TV Puls.

News Corp hasn't revealed its plans concerning the broadcaster and TV Puls' CEO, Father Dzido, didn't give any details of the value of the deal. Earlier, however, papers had reported the company was seeking around zł.100 million in investment in the first year.

Dailies Rzeczpospolita and Parkiet will also change hands, as the Norwegian food-to-metals conglomerate Orkla will sell its entire media branch to UK investment firm Mecom. At the same time, Orkla is going to take a significant shareholding in Mecom.