News International and BSkyB

If I wanted to watch UK programming I would watch the BBC or ITV. I pay extra not to see more UK content but to have access from the latest programs from the US.

There's nothing to say that the whole stake has to go to a single investor. It's a public limited company and so will have hundreds, possibly thousands of investors - a lot of Sky staff have share options for example

Yes, which according to this article he could possibly be prosecuted in the US under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. If this is the case then News Corp would be involved and could well be found 'unfit'

Hands up who like to see News Corp & News International wiped from the face of the Earth?

The trouble is though with the monopoly Sky has if it did go out of business it wouldn't be good news at all for British television in the short term at least with consequences for millions of Sky subscribers and multiple satellite channels. And whenever anything did rise from the ashes to fill the void left by BSkyB, it would almost certainly be of a similar model anyway.

that's not the only reason, there's no doubt that the brand is a liability and that in turn is a handy excuse for their cost cutting plan.


The Times is also loss-making. The Sun/News of the World subsidise The Times in the same way that the rest of BSkyB subsidise Sky News. However they are loss-leaders - they buy the Murdoch organisation great influence and respectability, even with the spun off Sky News plan that would remain.

As News International is essentially a fully owned subsidiary of News Corporation, it could just be a case of follow the ownership and the personnel. James Murdoch is the Chairman of British Sky Broadcasting, Chairman of News International, Chairman and CEO of News Corporation International, and Deputy Chief Operating Officer of the main News Corporation. as well as a member of the main News Corporation Board. He is tied into all three parts of the Murdoch empire under controversy at the moment. There is a section of the UK Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act that would allow board members to be charged if they neglected their duties allowing illegal activity covered by that Act to take place, which would apply to James Murdoch as a board member and Chairman of News International, and as already noted there is the possibility of an American investigation into corruption.



BSkyB as an entity separate from News Corp. is very profitable. In the short-term, if News Corp. were forced by being found not to be fit and proper to control UK broadcast licenses to give up either enough shares so that it no longer had effective control, or divest of all its shareholding entirely, it would have no effect on BSkyB as it is capable of standing on its own two feet.

In the medium to long term, it would start to have consequences in terms of the relationships with other News Corp. properties, meaning they wouldn't enjoy privileged relationships with the likes of 20th Century Fox when importing U.S. TV programmes and movies.

Woah, hang on. Whoever said that BSkyB could go 'out of business'? It's one of the biggest and most profitable television companies in the world, whatever happens during this saga it's not going anywhere. I'd say that it is very unlikely that News Corp would be required to pull out of BSkyB completely and if they are it's still a very healthy going concern worth investing in.

Also Sky is not a monopoly!

It certainly is in respect of some content, and acts like it is with the rest. It's actions over DTT carriage clearly reflect monopolistic tendancies.

Tendancies maybe, but it isn't a monopoly. There are other platforms out there and other channels.

Who would buy them? I'm sure Mirror Group, Express Group, and Associated Newspapers would love to see the removal of a major rival. But none of them would buy both the Sun and the Times, as it would mean competing with themselves (the Mirror already has the Sunday Mirror and The People, and the People suffers for it - wouldn't surprise me if it's the next paper to fall - Express Group owns the Star as well as the Express, and Associated owns the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday). They'd all rather that their readers moved to the titles they already own.

News Corp have rejected the Sky News spin off and therefore the takeover has been referred to the Competition Commission: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/07/11/news-corp-withdraw-sky-ne_n_894610.html

Apparently the CC have 24 weeks in which to come up with their decision, which could either be a good or bad thing for News Corp - either it'll enough time for stuff to blow over, or allow more time for arrests etc.