The Office of Fair Trading could intervene in the proposed merger between NTL and ITV owing to NTL’s 50% stake in pay-TV provider UKTV.
Flextech, wholly owned by NTL, could be required to sell its stake in UKTV, which is a joint 50/50 venture with BBC Worldwide, according to a report in the
Telegraph.
Because of the large back catalogue that the new company would possess, the OFT could decide that competition would be lessened by a merger and force NTL to sell its stake.
There is a possibility that Flextech could sell its stake to the BBC, depending on the agreement currently in place between the two parties.
Meanwhile, reports in the trade press suggest that the advertising and media industry would move to block any attempt to merge the sales operations of ITV and NTL.
A merger of the sales operations, ITV Sales and NTL’s sales division IDS, would give it control over 50% of the £3 billion UK TV advertising sales market.
It was announced last week that NTL had approached ITV about a possible merger (see NTL Telewest Could Merge With ITV).
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