When push comes to pull, can the ITV dowager make new friends?
There is something deeply comical about the spectacle of old-media companies trying to engage with this new-fangled internet thingy. It’s a bit like watching a dowager learning to rap – and almost as embarrassing. Some time ago, Rupert Murdoch – previously noted only for his scepticism about the net – arranged for News Corporation to buy myspace.com, an online dating site for twenty- and thirtysomethings. Then one of his other corporate tentacles, British Sky Broadcasting, scooped up easynet, a broadband ISP, for £211 million. Last week, ITV – a television company that is watching its core business slide into terminal decline – paid serious money (up to £175m) for Friends Reunited, a five-year-old business based originally on putting former schoolmates in touch with each other. The deal was so bizarre that it alarmed some major ITV shareholders. Chief executive Charles Allen confessed to reporters that some shareholders had needed reassurances about the wisdom of a 50-year-old broadcas
