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 Rotana’s been burning the candle at both ends recently, it seems, judging by the news that a 10% acquisition by News Corp is “99%” complete, and the announcement, set to come tomorrow, of a massive content deal with Disney.
Both news nuggets came courtesy of Nezar Nagro, president of Rotana Media Services, who spoke to reporters in Riyadh this week. Gosh, there’s a lot of alliteration in that sentence.
“The deal is 99% finished, not yet final, and will be announced … in January,” Nagro told Zawya Dow Jones, referring to the deal with News Corp (which, incidentally, also owns Zawya Dow Jones) to buy 10% of Rotana.
“It could be for a bigger stake, but that isn’t final yet,” added Nagro, confirming the original speculation
from back in September that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp was looking at a 20% stake in Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s media powerhouse.
AFP, via Zawya, also cited Nagro as saying Rotana may list on the Saudi stock exchange next year.
Meanwhile, back in the day-to-day world of programming, Nagro also put a figure on the size of the deal due to be announced at a press conference tomorrow, which will see Disney content come to Rotana’s Fox channels.
According to Bloomberg, reprinted on AB.com, Nagro nailed the deal at 100 million Saudi Riyals (around $26 million), a sizeable outlay. The deal will see Disney content shown on the Fox Movies and Fox Series channels, suggesting the package includes both Disney movies and TV series.
More on that one when we hear it tomorrow.
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