Content, good pricing drove media deals in 2013

Nothing gets between Americans and pro football. It's a lesson learned the hard way by Time Warner Cable as it blinked in its negotiations over licensing fees with CBS on the eve of the NFL regular season debut in September 2013. If the costly fight proved anything this year, it was that owners of compelling content can often steer their destinies even as emerging technologies upend distribution and sales tactics.

Despite tirades about bountiful junk on the Internet and cable and the decline of the legacy media business, investors' money flowed to the producers of TV shows and websites. Even magazines and newspapers got some good news in 2013. US media and entertainment companies completed $75.8 billion worth of acquisitions and mergers in 2013, a 47% increase on 2012, according to Thomson Reuters. The number of deals was up, as well -- 766 vs. 596 in 2012. Some investors found valuation of the target companies ideal as the recovery of the advertising market from the 2008 financial crisis teeters along. Total US advertising spending rose for the fourth-consecutive year in 2013, up 3.8% to $171.3 billion, according to data from eMarketer. A sharp spike in mobile advertising and a steady recovery of TV ads more than offset the continual -- and likely, irrevocable -- fall in print advertising. Other deals were the manifestations of companies seeking consolidation -- aligning resources with competitors -- to fortify themselves against foes and forces that threaten future profits. "Consolidation is happening in every legacy industry," wrote media analyst Ken Doctor, on his website, Newsonomics.com. "2013 was the biggest year of TV station ownership consolidation."

[Dec 30]