BSkyB would be interested in buying a stake in ITV companies Carlton and Granada if the Government changed the current cross media ownership laws, according to CEO Tony Hall.
Speaking at the Royal Television Society conference in Cambridge, Sky’s chief executive said that if the current broadcasting laws were changed, Sky would consider investing in one or both of the ITV giants. Current restrictions prevent BSkyB from owning more than a 20% stake in any other commercial broadcaster.
Hall’s comments come at a difficult time for the ITV companies, as their stock falls along with television advertising expenditure. Granada chairman, Charles Allen, and Carlton chief executive, Steve Morrison, in July warned the Government about the possibility of being bought by outside investors unless the media ownership laws were reformed, allowing a merger between the two companies (see Granada Warns Of ‘Potential Disaster’ For ITV).
BSkyB is also understood to be in discussions with Channel 5 over the possibility of acquiring a stake in the company (see BSkyB Interested In C5 Stake According To Reports). Furthermore, New Media Markets reports that C5 is in talks with a number of broadcasters, including Sky, about leasing its free to air digital capacity on digital terrestrial television (DTT).
As a free to air station Channel 5 has ‘gifted’ capacity to broadcast on DTT, although it may elect not to use all of the capacity at its disposal; currently it only uses half of the capacity. The rest has been leased to SDN, the multiplex licence holder which is owned by S4C, United Business Media and NTL. However, under the contract with SDN, Channel 5 has the right to take back some of the capacity as from next February, according to analysts at ABN Amro.
As far back as 1998 C5 began receiving proposals form other broadcasters for the DTT multiplex space. At that time C5 said that any deal would be embarked on as a co-venture rather than a wholesale disposal of the frequencies.
BSkyB is thought to be looking for other outlets for its content, particularly Sky News and shopping channel QVC, of which it owns 20%. Sky’s ultimate owner, Rupert Murdoch, has also been fairly vocal about his ambitions to break into terrestrial television.
