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Media
Independent Sky News plan may get News Corp’s BSkyB takeover plan the green light
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 4 March 2011
Plans by the Rupert Murdoch controlled News Corp to take complete ownership of BSkyB seem likely to go ahead after the government’s culture man Jeremy ‘Don’t Say Cunt’ Hunt said he thought a proposal to make Sky News a stand alone company would satisfy various concerns raised by various people about News Corp owning Sky outright in addition to its ownership of the Times and Sun newspapers.
As previously reported, Business Secretary Vince Cable asked media regulator OfCom to review News Corp’s plans, and the opposition to them expressed by many of their rivals, last November. Responsibility for reviewing the takeover was subsequently handed to Hunt after Cable’s independence in the matter was called into question after he expressed a desire to mount “war” against Murdoch to undercover reporters.
Most of the concerns raised about the takeover related to the Murdoch empire’s potential influence over the Sky News operation. Although denying its acquisition of BSkyB outright would damage the editorial independence of Sky News, News Corp yesterday proposed making the news channel a standalone company trading on the London Stock Exchange in which News Corp would take a 39.1% stake, in the hope that would satisfy both OfCom and Hunt that a more lengthy Competition Commission review of their takeover was not required.
Most of the concerned competitors say the plan is just a bit of spin, while others wonder how long the loss making Sky News can operate as a stand alone entity, but Hunt seems to be thinking the proposal is sufficient to enable him to ignore opponents to the Sky takeover deal and let Murdoch get his way. Good times.
