Mexican media giant Televisa is prepared to sell its stake in Univision to a private equity consortium after being outbid in its takeover attempt, reports Reuters. The move will allow the company to explore rival opportunities in the U.S. Hispanic media market. Televisa owns an 11.4 percent stake in Univision, and could have remained an investor even after the company is taken private for about $12.3 billion by a group including U.S. media tycoon Haim Saban. The announcement, Reuters notes, "marks a shift for Televisa, which had long sought to boost its stake in Univision, the dominant U.S. Spanish-language broadcaster." …

As the digital revolution increases its pace and the export of American culture becomes increasingly fraught, MTV is losing its cool, writes Viv Groskop in the New Statesman. And the Internet may well kill the video star--just like it did in the radio one in the hit Buggles song. "Video Killed the Radio Star" were the first words to be heard when MTV launched on 1 August 1981, and the playlist for the first hour featured videos by Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, The Who, and the Pretenders, Groskop remembers. But by the following year, 9.3 million people had subscribed, and …

With 2.5 million votes still to be counted, "American news outlets have already declared victory for Mexico's conservative presidential candidate," writes Chuck Collins at AlterNet. He says that on a radio interview he did this week in Texas, the host started the program by saying: 'In a cliffhanger election, the right-wing candidate Felipe Calderon has beaten the left-wing firebrand Lopez Obrador by 1 percent. But Lopez Obrador is demanding a recount and threatening street protests." Later, he notes, CBS Radio called for an interview to discuss the Calderon "victory." For Collins, it is "Whoa. Time out!" While the election is …

The Thomson Corporation may be the biggest media company most people have never heard of, reports While the one-time owner of The Times of London and a string of small-town U.S. newspapers in small-town America sold off its print operations some time ago, it "has turned itself into a major purveyor of media of a different sort--specialized, high-end electronic information sold by subscription to lawyers, financial traders, academics, and physicians." And with revenues of $8.7 billion in 2005, it is now larger than newspaper No. 1 Gannett, at $7.59 billion. "If you ask most people in …

TV executives have scratched their heads as young male viewers are lured away from the tube by Xboxes, iPods, and other tech gadgets and online entertainment, reports the Los Angeles Times. But Spike TV is trying to get them back by pushing heaping helpings of manly fare. "The Rock is Spike," says Spike President Doug Herzog. "Jude Law is not Spike." It has been three years since the channel proclaimed itself the "first network for men," and Spike has scheduled a slew of original action-oriented programming, including "The Ultimate Fighter" and "Blade." "I think everybody understood the notion that it's …

News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch looks into the rest of the 21st century and sees an interesting and challenging--even threatening--but ultimately liberating mix, reports the Sunday Times. At its core is the Internet and growth in the wireless and cable broadband that allows global downloading of Hollywood movies, and enables even poor children to access the knowledge of the developed world. Murdoch, whose company owns the paper he talked to, is captivated by the Internet--although that does not mean abandoning traditional print and electronic media. "He talks as ever of adding a Polish TV network here, negotiating for something in …

Movie studios are looking to "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" and smaller films to stay ahead of last year's summer box-office slump, Bloomberg reports. The Disney Co. movie--set to open July 7--and potential sleeper hits such as "Snakes on a Plane" are more important to the industry now, as Time Warner's "Superman Returns" failed to meet analysts' average forecast of $100 million or more in sales for its five-day debut. Summer sales at U.S. and Canadian theaters were up about 2 percent through June 25, thanks to higher ticket prices and hits like "X-Men: The Last Stand" and …

Media giant Viacom should see revenue growth of more than 20 percent in China this year--a slow but steady gain in a tough market, reports the South China Morning Post. The owner of MTV and Nickelodeon is bringing tens of millions of dollars each year into the country, according to Nigel Robbins, president of MTV Networks Asia-Pacific. But that is just a small fraction of the company's $2.4 billion in total revenue in the first quarter of this year. "We have a healthy business here," says Robbins. "By no means are we faltering." Viacom and other media conglomerates like News …

Billionaire Eli Broad wants to see the Los Angeles Times championing civic projects--becoming, in his view, the glue to unite a diverse and fractured city, reports The New York Times. Newspapers are the soul of a community and should be locally owned, he says--one reason why he wants to see the LA Times--now owned by the Chicago-based Tribune Co.--get acquired by a group of local organizations, including his own foundation. "A newspaper can provide a power base," he says. "If a publisher wants to get things done, they can get 30 of the most important people in the room. It's …

New MSNBC chief Dan Abrams has made some changes to the news channel, shuffling its prime-time schedule, dumping one show, and adding two hours of documentaries on weeknights, reports Mediaweek. While its core of "Hardball," "Countdown," and "Scarborough Country" will remain intact, going off the air will be "Rita Cosby: Live & Direct," which had been in the 10 p.m. slot Monday-Thursday. Tucker Carlson will move from 11 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. The 10 p.m.-midnight slot will be home to "MSNBC Investigates," an expanded version of the documentaries that have been seeing some ratings improvement on Friday …