Theater advertisers may consider deal

posted by Michael Zoldessy on June 1, 2009 at 10:45 am

Consolidation in the theater advertising field could raise antitrust issues.

Two firms, National CineMedia (NCMI) and Screenvision, control the 20 minutes or so before showtime at the vast majority of theaters. But they soon may try to merge, which would raise the curtain on a debate about concentration of power in one of the few resilient media businesses in this miserable economy.

“I’m not sure that (a combination) is possible from an antitrust perspective,” says Lazard Capital Markets analyst Barton Crockett. “It would affect some advertisers, studios and independent theater chains that like to play those two (companies) against each other.”

Read the full story in USA Today.