Astral Media shares dip to near four-year low despite 21 per cent surge in profits

MONTREAL — Astral Media Inc. (TSX:ACM.A) shares took a beating Thursday, falling to their lowest level in nearly four years even though Canada’s largest radio broadcaster posted a 21 per cent rise in spring-quarter earnings.

Montreal-based Astral’s shares closed at $28.96 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the lowest level since the fall of 2004. The shares, which have fallen more than 36 per cent on the year, lost $2.24, or 7.18 per cent.

Astral – which is also involved in specialty television channels and outdoor adveritising sales – isn’t alone in the pullback in media stocks, but CEO Ian Greenberg said the company is working hard to improve its ratings to attract advertising spending.

“The strong really come to the forefront in tough markets,” he said during a conference call.

“We’ve seen this happen time and time again where in bad times the strong operators with good attractive programming to consumers stay in the forefront and maintain their growth whereas the bottom half unfortunately fall by the wayside quite a bit.”

Rogers iPhone 2nd most costly in the world

Despite the better prices and service terms temporarily being offered by Rogers Communications Inc. for Apple Inc.’s iPhone 3G, Canadians will still be paying nearly the highest overall cost for the device in the world.

Rogers announced its new rates on Wednesday but has not yet published them on its website.

According to CBCNews.ca’s iPhone iNdex, which compares basic service plans from the 27 carriers in 21 countries that have announced pricing for the device’s launch on Friday, Canadians who buy the device before Aug. 31 will be faced with a total minimum cost of $2,176 US over the course of the three-year deal they must sign with Rogers. That is second only to the $2,554 US customers of Vodafone will pay in Italy with their two-year service agreement.

The total minimum commitment cost counts the up-front fee for the iPhone plus the monthly service charge for each month of the contract that customers are required to sign. All numbers in the iPhone iNdex have been converted to U.S. dollars for comparison purposes.

DJ AM Spins a Libel Suit

It seems like forever ago—at least in Hollywoodland—that DJ AM was engaged to Nicole Richie. But for the famed record spinner and club owner, it seems to be the relationship that keeps on giving…major headaches.

The disgruntled scenester, whose actual name is Adam Goldstein, has sued the New York Daily News for libel and false-light invasion of privacy, alleging that a June 22 article published online and in print about his lack of earning prowess since he and Richie split is a darned falsehood. (View the lawsuit.)

“DJ AM’s career has continued to thrive,” states the lawsuit filed June 27 in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The Daily News suggested that the music man was no longer commanding his usual six-figure sum for party gigs and that the major clubs in Miami and the Hamptons haven’t been seeking him out now that he’s no longer attached to a famous feminine name.

Dalai Lama to attend Rome film fest’s Tibet Day

The Dalai Lama is to attend a Rome Film Festival tribute to Tibet on Oct. 8.

The Tibet Day program was organized by Goffredo Bettini, the former president of the fledgling festival, which was started in 2006 to rival the established Venice festival.

In an interview in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Bettini confirmed that the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, has accepted an invitation to attend.

Bettini stepped down in June after a change in government that threw out the leftist city administration that created the film festival.

The new city mayor has decried the amount of money spent on the festival and appointed a new president, Gian Luigi Rondi, who has said he will concentrate on creating a program focused on Italian film.

But Bettini’s proposal for Tibet Day remains in place, according to a report in Variety on Thursday.