There's been a great deal of
discussion recently about EMAP demerging its business or selling off chunks to anyone with a large enough cheque.
The nature of EMAP's business is going to make that difficult for whoever's going to cast an eye over the main consumer brands.
EMAP has led the way in producing cross-platform entities, all of which reinforce each other. Would Smash Hits Radio do (apparently) so well, if there wasn't a TV station that supported it? What happens to the support Heat magazine is giving the relaunched Heat Radio if they go their separate ways?
In an ideal world the buyer would scoop up all the branded bits together, for Kerrang this would include the magazine, website, events, TV and radio - but are the potential buyers - GCap, GMG and Global have all been mooted - really geared up to run all of those different businesses? And if they stretch their core competencies will the brands they've paid handsomely for start to lose their value.
There is also a fly in the ointment with regards the TV channels. EMAP has of course just flogged off half of the TV operation (The Hits, Smash Hits, Kerrang, The Box, Kiss, Magic, Q) to Channel 4. EMAP's had enough trouble keeping each of the platforms 'on brand' and that's when they own them all, it's going to be hugely difficult when these are all owned by separate companies.
