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Business News Deals Media
CBS Radio and Entercom merge to create second biggest US radio firm
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 3 February 2017
Following the news last year that US media firm CBS was looking into selling or spinning off its radio business, yesterday it was announced CBS Radio would merge with radio rival Entercom.
CBS will spin off its radio division into a standalone entity that will then merge with the Entercom business. CBS Radio shareholders will own 72% of that new company, while Entercom shareholders will control the rest.
Though it feels more like a takeover of the CBS stations by Entercom, and the new entity will be run out of the latter’s base near Philadelphia.
CBS and Entercom say that their combined radio business will own 244 stations across the US, and will be the country’s second biggest radio broadcaster by revenue.
From a US perspective, the radio industry could become enemy number one of the music business this year, as ongoing disputes over the royalties paid (or not paid) by American broadcasters escalate. As we discuss in this CMU Trends article here.
