Further Delays, Obstacles in News Corp.’s Sky Takeover

LONDON: Upon the closure of the consultation on News Corporation’s proposed BSkyB takeover today, the U.K.’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport said that sifting through the responses—a reported 156,000 electronic submissions—"will take some time," while Ofcom is said to be gearing up to investigate if News Corp. is a "fit and proper" owner of the platform.

"The Secretary of State has always been clear that he will take as long as is needed to reach a decision," said the statement from Jeremy Hunt’s office. "The Secretary of State will consider carefully all the responses submitted and take advice from Ofcom and the Office of Fair Trading before reaching his decision. Given the volume of responses, we anticipate that this will take some time."

The statement also noted that the closure of News of the World, announced by James Murdoch yesterday, will be considered in his decision making, to see if it "has any impact on the question of media plurality."

Media regulator Ofcom, meanwhile, is, according published reports, likely to evaluate if News Corp. is a "fit and proper" owner of BSkyB. Earlier this week, Ofcom released a statement about its obligations, noting "that it has a duty to be satisfied on an ongoing basis that the holder of a broadcasting licence is ‘fit and proper’. It is clearly not for Ofcom to investigate matters which properly lie in the hands of the police and the courts, however we are closely monitoring the situation and in particular the investigations by the relevant authorities into the alleged unlawful activities."

The latest developments have hit Sky’s share price, which as the market closed today stood at 750 pence, down 7.64 percent. On July 4 the price had peaked at 850 pence.