British media scrambles to prevent Murdoch takeover of Sky Broadcasting

[katty]

more:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/british-media-scrambles-prevent-murdoch-takeover-sky-broadcasting/


UK's largest newspaper publisher, television network may soon be under one roof

An unprecedented coalition of British media outlets have banded together in recent weeks, insisting the government intervene in a planned buyout of British Sky Broadcasting by Australian-American media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

Murdoch, owner of Fox News Channel parent company News Corporation, already has a 39 percent stake in Sky, but he's looking to up that to 100. The broadcaster's total value is estimated at around 12.3 billion euros, according to The Financial Times.

Raising objections to the takeover were the heads of the BBC; Associated Newspapers, which owns The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail; The Guardian Media Group; The Telegraph Media Group and Trinity Mirror, which owns The Daily Mirror: they and other all signed a petition directed toward UK Business Secretary Vince Cable, asking that he consider halting the proposed 8 billion euro buyout.

[Taverner]

1. Murdoch IS the Devil

I may not believe in god, but I believe in the Devil - and that rat bastard's name is Murdoch

he must be stopped - BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!

[katty]

2. o, he is direct from hell-let's see if these Brits can block him

i hope they can at least stall for awhile.

[stray cat]

3. Are you advocating.....

[Taverner]

4. Not violence, but not obeying the law every time either

We need some idiot kids to go Brietbart us some fake shit to put on the GOP

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. The link posted is 4 weeks old; the new development is that the Business Secretary has referred it

to Ofcom:

The Liberal Democrat business secretary acted this morning – just two days after the company behind the Sun and the Times formally notified regulators it wanted to buy the 61% of BSkyB it does not own – and asked Ofcom to carry out a public interest assessment of whether the deal would damage media plurality in the UK.

Ofcom, which is run by Ed Richards, a former adviser to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, is due to report back to Cable by the end of the year at the latest. If it finds there is a case to answer, Cable could then ask the Competition Commission to investigate further.

The commission has the power to recommend blocking the deal, or requiring Rupert Murdoch to sell off parts of his company to win approval for the takeover. However, a final decision would have to be made by Cable in conjunction with other cabinet members.

Sources close to the European commission – where News Corporation also has to seek regulatory approval – today indicated that the company had explored the idea of selling Sky News to get the merger through. One source said: "The speculation is that News Corp may be intelligent enough to understand there is a risk of rejection and that offering to sell Sky News might turn the tables."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/nov/04/ofcom-referral-news-corp-bskyb