OFT Invites Comments On Sky Stake In ITV

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has issued a statement asking for interested parties to comment on the deal which saw BSkyB acquire a 17.9% stake in ITV.

The statement from the OFT said: “The OFT believes that it may be the case that a relevant merger situation has been created since Sky and ITV may have come under common control for the purposes of the Enterprise Act 2002 (the Act) as a result of Sky acquiring material influence over ITV, and that the turnover test is satisfied.

“The OFT is therefore issuing a formal invitation to comment (ITC) with respect to the transaction. The ITC invites interested third parties to submit any further views they have on jurisdiction and whether the merger situation identified above may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services that warrants reference to the Competition Commission.

In a recent interview, James Murdoch said that Sky’s decision to acquire the stake in ITV was not designed to spoil a potential merger between NTL and ITV, whose board rejected a bid shortly after BSkyB announced its move (see BSkyB Chief Exec Defends Company’s Swoop On ITV Shares).

The closing date for comments is 25 January 2007.

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com Sky: 08702 40 40 40 www.sky.com