UTV is set to break into the Dublin radio scene in a €16 million deal to acquire Lite FM, the local station geared at the over-35s market.
The deal was approved in principle by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland yesterday.
The terms of the contract were not revealed yesterday, but the purchase is understood to value Lite FM at around €16 million.
It follows the Commission's refusal in October to sanction UTV's proposed €30 million takeover of the longer-established Dublin station FM104.
In rejecting that deal, the Commission invoked a rule which effectively imposes a moratorium on the sale of stations whose licences are subject to a renewal process.
The same rule does not apply to Lite FM and the deal was sanctioned at the Commission's board meeting yesterday.
Neither Lite FM nor UTV would comment.
But the move has obvious advantages for UTV, which has been keen to break into the Dublin radio market after moving into the local market in Cork and Limerick.
The sale is something of a coup for the owners of Lite FM, which is understood to be near the break-even position after launching in May 2000. In a highly competitive market, the latest Joint National Listenership Research shows the station has developed a 12 per cent share of the adult market in Dublin.
Figures show it has gained listeners at the expense of the established independent stations in Dublin - 98FM and FM104.
Beneficiaries of the sale include the station's chief executive, Mr Martin Block, and his brother Howard, who own about 22 per cent of the company.
The biggest shareholder is the venture capital group CEA Radio Ireland Ltd, which holds 27 per cent of the station.
Smaller beneficiaries of the sale include the former head of IDA Ireland and chairman of the Railway Procurement Agency, Mr Padraic White.
Other directors include the Sherry FitzGerald director, Mr Gerry Murphy, and a composer, Mr Ronan Hardiman.
The latest Companies Office filings for Lite FM's owner, City Broadcasting Ltd, show that the station had a cumulative loss of €2.33 million up to the end of 2001.
Equity shareholders funds were worth €463,672.
Belfast-based UTV has developed a strong position in the media market in the Republic.
No longer seen as solely a television operation, the group spent €15.74 million last April on the Limerick-based radio station, Live95 FM.
The price included net debt of about €1.17 million.
That deal followed the completion of UTV's €36.2 million acquisition of the Cork radio group, County Media, with the purchase for €14.2 million of the outstanding 40 per cent that it did not already own. In March, the group also took a 50 per cent stake in Dublin media start-up Bocom Ltd, a company which supplies advertising, news and weather content via satellite to high-quality plasma screens in public areas.
For example, Bocom has a deal with Aer Rianta to supply content to screens in the baggage halls at Dublin Airport.
