Should Murdoch's takeover of Sky be blocked?

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  • European Commission competition authorities have cleared 21st Century Fox to buy the 61% of broadcaster Sky that it does not yet own.

    The Sky takeover is still in the hands of Ofcom, but Murdoch is further along the path now in gaining full control of Sky with the clearance being given by the European Commission to the deal.

    Should we be worried that all "our" media assets are being gobbled up by foreigners?

    And as said before, should Ofcom block this?

  • Shows how much I know I thought Murdoch already owned Sky.

    I always have thought Murdoch to be a bit dodgy anyhow, the phone hacking by his newspapers and he is probably the reason the Leveson report got ignored by his buddys at Westminster. ;)

  • Shows how much I know I thought Murdoch already owned Sky.

    I always have thought Murdoch to be a bit dodgy anyhow, the phone hacking by his newspapers and he is probably the reason the Leveson report got ignored by his buddys at Westminster. ;)

    In effect, he's always controlled the company, but Sky as we know it today, was formed from a merger of two companies: Murdoch's Sky and British Satellite Broadcasting. which is why the merged company was called BSkyB for ages.

    BTW: The government is to make it's decision on the takeover within a week:

    Culture Secretary Karen Bradley will reveal whether she plans to refer 21st Century Fox's proposed takeover of Sky for a fuller investigation by 29 June.

  • TBQH I don't care who owns the company so long as it delivers what the punters want. Nobody seems to be too upset about the BBCs virtual monopoly on news and current affairs.

    I think there is a difference between perceived monopoly and actual monopoly.

    As far as news goes, I disagree that the BBC is dominate, it's just that they're accessible, we know them, overall we trust them, even if they do have a bias to the left.

    For TV news, there are lots of choices, even on Freeview:

    BBC

    Sky

    RT

    Al Jazeera

    Go onto satellite and cable and you can add scores more like:

    CNN

    Euronews

    Fox News

    CNBC

    Bloomberg

    France 24 and others

    On the internet, the choices are vast:

    BBC and all the ones above, but also:

    Reuters (the actual provider of lots of our news), their main website is free

    Huffington Post

    Times

    Telegraph

    Indy

    Guardian

    and scores more newspaper sites from here and around the world.

  • The main reason I will never sign up to the likes of Sky is the fact you still get adverts despite having to pay a subscription.

    It's expensive too.

    The main reason I ditched Sky was a technical one.

    With the arrival of their mini dishes for digital tv, we were promised no more picture problems as it's all ones and zeros now. But the pictures were still being beamed down from satellite and things such as heavy rain could affect the signal. We have zero tolerance in my household for such things, if we want to watch tv, we don't want to be met with a signal lost message, so I eventually ditched Sky about seven years ago.

    I've always had cable and I eventually added Freeview too.

  • I have one of those Smart TVs which has Freeview plus I can access BBC iplayer, ITV hub, All 4, Demand 5 and Amazon Prime so I am never short of anything to watch, Amazon Prime I pay for, but that includes a lot of movies, TV series and Amazon exclusive series as well as next day delivery on a lot of stuff from Amazon.

  • The Culture Secretary said she is "minded to" refer Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox takeover of Sky to the competition watchdog. Karen Bradley's decision is a blow to the media mogul's hopes of having the £11.7bn deal waved through without further scrutiny. Mr Murdoch already owns 39% of the satellite broadcaster.

    Takeover bids goes to competition authority

    ====

    That's a blow to Murdoch. All the sex scandals at Fox News hasn't helped in his long held quest to regain full control of "his" company.

    Perhaps we're coming to the end of the era with media moguls controlling everything??

  • Karen Bradley, the culture secretary, has made a statement to parliament today.

    She is still minded to refer the takeover to the competition authorities for a phase 2 investigation on plurality grounds only, not on broadcasting standards. The question of whether the Murdoch's are a fit and proper owner for Sky is not a matter for her to judge, she said, but Ofcom might like into it.

    She said she has received numerous documents from the Murdoch's, but despite these, she has not changed her mind. She may make a decision over the summer break on whether the merger will be refereed to the CMA (Competition & Markets Authority) or not.

    Tick tock. At least Vince Cable can't get involved this time round:

    Vince Cable to become Lib Dem Leader

  • 21st Century Fox's bid to buy Sky faces further hurdles after the culture secretary said she was "minded" to refer the deal to regulators over concerns about broadcasting standards.

    Karen Bradley had already said she was minded to refer the £11.7bn tie-up over concerns about media plurality.

    What was originally expected to be a "cakewalk" for the Murdochs in their long held quest to regain full control of Sky, is now looking much more unlikely.

    Bradley said before that she was minded to refer the takeover to competition authorities based on media plurality, but despite saying the exact opposite in July, (see above) Bradley is now saying she maybe minded to refer the takeover on whether Fox's corporate governance is good enough. Meaning whether the Murdochs are fit and proper owners considering the scandals at Fox News and the phone hacking allegations against The News of the World.

    What do people think? Will the Murdochs get their hands on Sky in the end, or are we seeing the beginning of the end of this media mogul family in the UK?

  • The bid by 21st Century Fox to buy Sky will be referred to competition regulators in the "coming days", Culture Secretary Karen Bradley has confirmed.

    The deal is facing a much fuller examination than initially expected.

    It will be assessed "on media plurality and genuine commitment to broadcasting standards grounds," Ms Bradley said.

    The Competition and Markets Authority will provide its response within 24 weeks of the referral.

    After months of "being minded", looks like Brady is finally going to refer this deal to a full CMA probe.

    What do people think, will Murdoch's deal get approved, or could this be the beginning of the end of the Murdochs in the UK?

  • Sky has threatened to shut down Sky News if the news channel proves to be an obstacle in Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox bid.

    Regulators are investigating the deal amid concerns that Mr Murdoch's media empire could become too powerful.

    Sky told the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) that the regulator should not assume "the continued provision" of Sky News.

    Murdoch Jnr has decided he's going to play hard ball to try and get this deal through, will he succeed?

    Could another reason for this seemingly urgent need to gain control of Sky be related to the news that the Murdoch's are seeking to sell most of their global company to Disney, see here: Disney may buy Fox. Is Murdoch throwing in the towel?

    Murdoch Jnr, who unlike his father, had his origins in news, he has no such sentimental attachments to news. Is his threat credible to sell Sky News to get the deal passed? It looses money and by his own words, "profit, above all else" is his number one driver.

  • ..... well, I called that one wrong, didn't I!!

    Fox's proposed takeover of Sky is not in the public interest on grounds of media plurality, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said.

    The CMA has provisionally found that if the deal went ahead as planned, it would give the Murdoch family too much control over news providers in the UK.

    However, the CMA found the deal would not be against the public interest on the grounds of broadcasting standards.

    Disney has agreed to buy most of Fox's business, so may end up owning Sky.

    Disney said that if Fox were unable to purchase all the rest of Sky it doesn't already own, it would simply make a direct bid for Sky itself.

    Now that the Murdoch takeover of Sky is blocked "provisionally" lets see if Disney do actually make a bid for Sky or not. Of course, they don't now have to wait for their takeover of 21st Century Fox to be cleared, so a potentially bid could come quite quickly from them.

    With Disney about to launch its own streaming service to take on Netflix, what benefit is there to Disney of buying a satellite tv business?

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