U.K. Competition Commission Details Sky/ITV Investigation

LONDON, July 10: The U.K.’s Competition Commission’s
investigation into BSkyB’s acquisition of a 17.9-percent stake in ITV will
include a look at the links between the platform and other businesses within
News Corporation, particularly the company’s British newspapers, such as The
Times and The Sun.

In May, Alastair Darling, at the time the Secretary of State
for Trade and Industry, ruled that BSkyB’s acquisition of the ITV stake
required investigation by the Commission, which is seeking to find out if the
transaction is expected to result in a “substantial lessening of competition.”
It will also explore what would have likely occurred in the absence of the
Sky/ITV deal—whether another party would have acquired the British
broadcaster, or if ITV would have remained independent.

The Commission has identified six ways in which the Sky deal
may be against the public interest; these include a loss of competition in the
areas of sports rights, content production and news. The investigation wants to
determine if there is an “ownership link” between Sky, News International, the
publisher of The Sun, among other
newspapers, ITV and ITN. ITV owns a 40-percent stake in ITN. News
International’s parent company, News Corporation, is the largest stakeholder in
Sky. “The acquisition creates an ownership link between the two largest
commercial television news production companies, ITN and Sky News,” the Commission
statement said. “This might reduce competition to supply news to third parties
such as Channels 4 and Five and lead to lower quality of news for viewers.”