• Ad Age, Monday, March 26, 2007 11:15 AM

WPP Group has bought a piece of Media Rights Capital, a company that brings money and partners to create content for a variety of media like TV, the Internet and cellphones. "Essentially, Media Rights custom builds content from scratch," says one insider. The company pulls talent, distributors and producers and determines the most suitable media platform, along with providing financing.

WPP, along with investment bank Goldman Sachs & Co. and AT&T, has put $400 million in MRC that will be used for content production. The ad agency group's interest is both financial and practical. "We do this to have a deeper understanding of the business," says Irwin Gotlieb, global CEO, Group M, the umbrella unit that oversees WPP Group's four media networks. "At our scale, we have to have a relationship with the content side that goes well beyond negotiation for 30-second spots or GRPs." And, as part of the deal, WPP gets first shot at branded-entertainment opportunities for its clients from MRC financed projects.

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