JANUARY 20, 2001
Ecclestone and Haffa to meet in Austria
There has been speculation in recent months that Ecclestone has plans to buy the entire EM.TV empire and will then break it up with some of its media and merchandising assets being sold on to pay for the rest of the purchase, Ecclestone will probably have another buyer lined up for the shares if his previous dealings are anything to go by.
The logical move for him would be some kind of a deal involving the Disney company in the United States as the firm is keen to get its hands on some of EM.TV's cartoon library while Ecclestone would like to get a deal with a major US television network in order to speed up the growth of F1 in the United States of America. Disney controls the ABC network and the ESPN sports channels. ABC currently does not have a major involvement in motor racing following NASCAR's decision to do a deal with rivals NBC and Fox.