Sky to sell over half of ITV stake
Monday, January 28th, 2008We also find out what bears get up to in the woods
In news which will come as a shock to absolutely no-one, Secretary of State for Business John Hutton has ordered Sky to reduce their stake in ITV from the current 17.9 per cent to less than half that amount at 7.5.
The statement released from the Department for Business reads:
‘The Secretary of State has decided to make an adverse public interest finding, taking account of the Competition Commission’s decision that this transaction results in a substantial lessening of competition within the UK market for all television.
‘The Secretary of State has also decided to impose the remedies recommended by the Competition Commission to address the substantial lessening of competition identified in their report: divestment of BSkyB’s shares in ITV down to a level below 7.5 [per cent] and behavioural undertakings from BSkyB requiring the company not to dispose of the shares to an associated person, nor to seek or accept representation on the board of ITV and not to reacquire shares in ITV.’
Thus ends one chapter of the tangled war of attrition between Sky and Virgin Media, with enough arcs and twists to be considered worthy of a Lost season. The Byzantine legal wrangling over the carriage fees farce is still ongoing, as is a separate but closely related joint complaint by BT, Setanta and Virgin over Sky’s so-called ‘vicious circle’ of control over sports broadcasting. Ofcom are to decide whether the latter case should be referred to the Commission by the end of the month, but it is looking unlikely.
BT’s beef is related to its battle for broadband – Ofcom regulation saw the telco having to open up it’s network of phonelines to rival ISPs, including Sky. BT are currently market leaders in the broadband market, whereas Sky sit pretty atop of the pay TV pile.
