MAIDEN LAST week brought an ignominious end to the independent life of UK advertising firm Maiden, as it was sold to US outfit Titan Outdoor for a knockdown price of less than 70m. The takeover offer values the firm at less than 10% of its market capitalisation a year ago.

Maiden Group's financial woes came about as a slowdown in consumer spending prompted buyers of advertising space to cut back. The company had been refinanced last year, and in October was awarded a five-year advertising contract with CIE.

Maiden had said the deal, which would have given the agency a 25% share of the Irish outdoor advertising market, would be worth roughly 118m over the contract period. But as financial problems mounted, Maiden was unable to meet initial conditions to finalise the contract and it was eventually awarded to Titan, an extra sting in the tail.

Last July Maiden also signed a 10-year deal worth 515m to provide services to Network Rail in the UK.

Maiden owns advertising space at over 500 railway stations, over 96 shopping malls, and over half of all supermarkets in the UK.

The company received approaches after breaking banking agreements in June last year, but at the end of February it said all potential offers had undervalued the company.

A day later, Maiden's banks said they wouldn't provide additional cash, forcing the company to take an offer.

"We now have no alternative but to accept the offer from Titan, which in the circumstances is the best available, " said Maiden chief executive Ronald Zeghibe.

NBC'S BIG EFFORT TO CONVINCE ADVERTISERS

US television channel NBC, which is owned by General Electric, is trying to convince advertisers that its offering for next autumn will see it boost ratings.

Advertisers were shown pilots two months earlier than usual. Two drama shows were featured, 'The Black Donnellys' and 'Kidnapped'. 'The Black Donnellys' is about four Irish brothers in New York who are involved in organised crime.

It was written by screenwriters Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco, whose film 'Crash' recently won the best picture Oscar.

'Kidnapped follows the kidnapping of a wealthy family's son.

NBC was once the highest ranking TV network and has now slipped to fourth position.

Advance bookings for commercials on NBC fell 30% to $2bn for the current season, and the network lost 8.4% of its young viewers. The station has said it is scrapping longrunning shows such as 'The West Wing' and 'Will & Grace'.

TV3'S NEW SERIES ATTRACTS OVER 151,000

New series were also on the menu on Irish channels last Monday. 'Everybody Hates Chris', a US sitcom shown on TV3 at 8pm attracted an average of 151,000 viewers (13% audience share). A news series of medical comedy Scrubs on RTE Two at 9pm was watched by an average of 144,000 viewers (11% share). Homeproduced 'Naked Camera' returned to RTE Two and had an average of 253,000 viewers (19% share).

NEW PROJECT TO BOOST BILINGUAL MARKETING

Foras na Gaeilge is funding a new project for SMEs that aims to promote the adoption of bilingual outdoor signage and marketing material by small businesses.

Under the deal, Foras na Gaeilge will match company funding to a maximum of 2,000 for bilingual outdoor signage, and to a maximum of 1,000 for bilingual corporate materials. The scheme is open until September and is targeting firms operating outside traditional Gaeltacht areas.