The Walt Disney Company could buy U.K.'s Sky News
Walt Disney Co. is all set to acquire Sky PLC’s news channel, this deal could help Fox consolidate its ownership of the European pay-TV operator. The sale could give Rupert Murdoch too much power and hold over country's media.
Initially, 21st Century Fox was an important opponent for the bid but later Sky News informed that Fox won't be the proper owner of the channel. The principle reason behind this was broadcasting standards and plurality concerns. In a filing submitted to the Competition and Markets Authority published Tuesday, Fox said Disney could now buy Sky News.
Fox said, “The Walt Disney Company has expressed an interest in acquiring Sky News, with a view to adding it to Disney’s existing portfolio of television channels, whether or not Disney’s proposed acquisition of 21CF proceeds."
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Fox could sell Walt Disney if its bid to acquire the 61 percent of the company it does not already own is approved, regardless of whether Disney's proposed acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox's assets proceeds.
Fox already owns 39 percent of the European pay-TV group and they are regularly facing competition for control of the business from Comcast (Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, parent company of CNBC and CNBC.com.). They are ready to separate Sky news and establish an independent board. Fox planned to fund the independent organization for 15 years, before they planned to fund it for a decade.
Fox said, “We are aware that a group of politicians that is opposed to the transaction is seeking to influence the CMA and is making a number of unsupported and fanciful assertions."
They also added, “If the CMA were to accept at face value these assertions and be dissatisfied with enhanced remedies that are a direct and reasonable response to concerns it had raised with us, we believe that this would compromise the integrity of a system which is supposed to be objective, evidenced-based and grounded on the application of established legal principles.”
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First published: 3 April 2018, 15:43 IST
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