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TV Tokyo affiliate to become biggest shareholder in FM Inter-Wave+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, Feb. 23_(Kyodo) _ TV Tokyo Broadband Entertainment Inc. said Thursday it will become the biggest shareholder in FM Inter-Wave Inc. by obtaining a 39 percent equity stake in the struggling radio broadcaster in a deal valued at 1 billion yen. TV Tokyo Broadband, an Internet-related affiliate of TV Tokyo Corp., will help FM Inter-Wave turn around its business and also eyes introducing a music distribution service through the Internet linked with radio broadcasting, it said. TV Tokyo Broadband will buy the FM Inter-Wave shares from newspaper publisher Japan Times Ltd. and Nifco Inc., an industrial plastic manufacturer, on Friday. While FM Inter-Wave's prime listeners are foreigners in their 30s, TV Tokyo Broadband President Koji Kamibayashi said the company will seek to attract teenagers and people in their 20s as well. The Net services firm also eyes a future tie-up between the radio station and TV Tokyo's music and cartoon programs. FM Inter-Wave was established in 1996 amid calls for a radio broadcaster for foreigners in times of disaster, sparked by the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake in Japan. But it has since been in the red. |