Dinosaurs help save UK TV from global extinction: the UK media hasn't had much of a chance to compete with the international media giants. Only BBC Worldwide is making its presence felt. (Media).

Marketing Week, July, 2002 by Torin Douglas

For the British, there's a certain satisfaction in seeing the wannabe global media giants tearing themselves apart. The collapse of European pretenders Kirch Media and Vivendi is particularly welcome since it was never quite clear why the Germans and French (who are no good at television) should be catapulted into the global league, while the Brits (who are, by definition, great) couldn't make the leap.

How could Kirch buy the rights to two World Cups, threatening the whole ecology of free-to-air TV around the world? How could Vivendi, a French water company, buy a Hollywood giant like Universal Studios and knit it with other large businesses into a converged communications giant? More to the point, if they could do it -- and from almost a standing start -- why...