Chris Keall | Wednesday January 16 - national business review
UPDATE / Jan 16: MediaWorks has pulled a series of ads placed by Kim Dotcom to promote his new file sharing service Mega, launching January 20.
An insider at MediaWorks told NBR ONLINE the move was made in response to pressure from music and movie advertisers.
The ads were whipped off air shortly after they first aired on The Edge and seven other stations earlier today. Dotcom told NBR ONLINE the ads were placed exclusively with Mediaworks stations.
Spokeswoman Rachel Lorimar told NBR the spots were taken off air for "
commercial reasons" and that "
this is a unique situation."
She refused to comment further.
Kim Dotcom tweeted this afternoon "Apparently some music labels complained to MediaWorks about our radio ads. Booking of over 500 ad plays terminated. Wow!!!"
A rep for the Recording Industry Association of NZ (Rianz) was not immediately able to comment but was seeking more information on record companies' alleged involvement.
In follow-up tweets, Dotcom said, "Not blaming MediaWorks. They are a great company with great people. It's the music labels that are abusing their power, again."
He also offered to sell the ads to other radio stations if they would email him with terms.http://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/mediaworks-pulls-kim-dotcom-radio-ads
