BSkyB Must Lower ITV Stake

LONDON, January 29: John
Hutton, the U.K.’s Secretary of State for Business and Enterprise, has ruled
that BSkyB must lower its stake in ITV from 17.9 percent to under 7.5 percent.

The U.K.’s Competition
Commission last year found that Sky’s interest in the commercial broadcaster,
acquired in November 2006, would result in a “substantial lessening of
competition” in the British TV market.

Sky must lower its stake
to under 7.5 percent; the time frame for this disposal has not been disclosed.
Sky cannot offload those shares to an “associated person,” take a seat on the
ITV board or reacquire shares in the company.

Sky has four weeks to
apply to the Competition Appeal Tribunal for a review of the decision.

—By Mansha Daswani