BSkyB to buy Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia.

Agent Coulson

Well intersting times ahead.

BSkyB hopes to create a pan-European pay TV biz serving nearly 20 million households through a merger with Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia. It is then likely to negotiate TV rights to films, TV series and possibly sports events on a pan-European basis.

Variety

irishgeo

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Well intersting times ahead.


Variety

surely the eu would want to look at such a deal.

Agent Coulson

I was wondering was there some sort of monopoly law against it in the EU.

Will we get Sky Italia`s porn channels now? :eek::D

lertsnim

Nothing stopping you from subscribing to those porn channels separately now. No need for any Sky.

JDxtra

I thought they already did, or at least a controlling stake. After all they share the same name.

The Cush

Agent Coulson wrote: »

BSkyB to buy Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia.

Well intersting times ahead.

Variety

Reported by Reuters early last month that they were in talks - http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/12/uk-bskyb-deutschland-talks-idUKKBN0DS07I20140512

The latest proposal would see BSkyB, 39 percent owned by 21st Century Fox, buy Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland, which are 100 percent and about 55 percent owned by Fox, respectively.

British regulators would likely want to examine any deal that would result in Murdoch increasing his overall stake in BSkyB. A source close to the talks said the current thinking was that Murdoch would not raise his holding in BSkyB above 39 percent as a result of a deal. Instead he could take cash to maintain his stake around that level in the combined company, analysts said.

...

The tie-up would put the group near the front of the pack if sports rights, which are sold country by country, were in future available on a pan-European basis.

The combined company would have 57 percent of its subscribers in Britain, 19 percent in Germany and 24 percent in Italy, analysts at Citi said. Britain would contribute 68 percent of revenue and 89 percent of group operating profit.

In terms of subscribers, the combined Sky groups would trail John Malone's Liberty Global, which has about 25 million customers across 12 European countries.

icdg

57% in Britain, 19% in Germany, and 24% in Italy eh? So where does Ireland and Austria fit into that?

I'm not sure how this merged company, if it happens, can negotiate on a pan-European basis when some very major markets, including France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Belgium (which is really two separate markets, Flanders and Waloonia) are all not served by it. Perhaps they could buy pan-European rights and then sub licence them in the jurisdictions it doesn't operate in, but then it would effectively be getting into the programme distribution business which hereafter it hasn't been.

I'm also not sure where the benefit is for Fox (as opposed to Sky in this), they'll be trading control of Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia for a continuing minority stake in the enlarged BSkyB (though Murdoch often treats it as if it were a wholly owned subsidiary, he can only do so with the acquiesce of the other shareholders). If Sky Deutschland retains its Frankfurt listing (although usually the acquisition of a stake of this size would trigger a takeover offer for the whole company - I'm not sure if the law is similar in Germany though) Fox would have an effective stake of only about 22% in the German business.

The Cush

icdg wrote: »

57% in Britain, 19% in Germany, and 24% in Italy eh? So where does Ireland and Austria fit into that?

Do BSkyB publish separate subscriber figures for the RoI, I haven't come across them. I think Comreg documents use a best guess figure? So safe to assume we're in the 57% figure.

watty

Really Murdoch controls all of these, so it's more an internal reorganisation plus PR.

helimachoptor

The Cush wrote: »

Do BSkyB publish separate subscriber figures for the RoI, I haven't come across them. I think Comreg documents use a best guess figure? So safe to assume we're in the 57% figure.

Nope sky doesn't publish it's Irish figures