Regulator: Sky Should Cut ITV Stake to Under 7.5 Percent

LONDON, December 20: The U.K.’s Competition Commission has
said that BSkyB should cut its stake in ITV from 17.9 percent to under 7.5
percent in order to alleviate the regulator’s concerns about the satellite
platform having excessive influence over the British commercial broadcaster.

The Competition Commission has recommended the stake
limitation to John Hutton, the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and
Regulatory Reform, who is expected to make his decision by the end of January.
The regulatory authority believes that Sky’s ownership of a 17.9-percent stake
in ITV, acquired last November, will result in a “substantial lessening of
competition.”

Sky had proposed placing its voting rights at ITV into a
blind trust. As an alternative, it also said it could sign an undertaking not
to exercise all of its voting rights. The commission ruled that both proposals
were not sufficient enough to alleviate its concerns. As such, it has proposed
either a full divesture, or limiting the stake to under 7.5 percent.

“We note the publication of the report and we are
considering its contents carefully,” Sky said in a statement today. “The next
phase of this process lies with the Secretary of State. We will be making
representations to him in due course.”

—By Mansha Daswani