Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
Even more regulation
Sky are to challenge the government order to reduce its stake in ITV. The Competition Commission said in December that the shareholding was detrimental to competition in the pay TV market and against the public interest; Business Secretary John Hutton eventually ordered the satcaster to cut its holding to 7.5 percent.
Sky said it would appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal this Friday; Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch offered that the “reality is that competition in this marketplace is as vigorous as ever – a merger has not taken place, Sky and ITV are distinct entities with independent strategies and Sky could not block a shareholder resolution without voting rights,” and that the commission’s case was built “on a series of implausible hypotheses and has recommended an arbitrary remedy for a nonexistent problem.”
Sky stand to lose well over half the cash amount it paid out for the stake in 2006 if forced into an immediate sale.
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on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 at 8:52 am and is filed under ITV, Sky Digital, Virgin Media.
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