Satellite broadcaster Sky has been sold to the US cable and video entertainment company Comcast, which owns Universal Studios, for US$39 billion (£30 billion). Comcast’s bid of £17.28 per share was easily larger than 21st Century Fox’s £15.67. Its bid succeeded in a blind auction against long-term shareholder Rupert Murdoch’s Fox, which wanted to take full control of the firm. In fact, had its bid succeeded, Fox’s ownership would have been short-lived, for the Murdoch family had already agreed to sell all the company’s media assets to Disney.
Disney will take over Fox’s 39% stake in Sky, but it is expected to sell this to Comcast. This could be achieved via an informal exchange deal for Comcast’s 30% interest in the US-based internet subscription broadcaster Hulu. This could be sold to Disney in return for a parallel deal for its Sky shares to be transferred to Comcast.
Comment by David Todd: Even though Sky has improved the quality of sports coverage and produced some very good drama, comedy and culture shows, as well as the excellent and (mainly) unbiased Sky News service, this writer remains negative about the company. This is because of its monetisation and domination of previously free-to-air sports television coverage, as well as some other television and film output. It is a business that both Comcast and Disney wanted to help them compete with Netflix and Amazon. Sky’s original subscription-based live soccer television service was needed, given that so little football was previously shown on terrestrial TV. But it has since used its burgeoning revenues to take over the exclusive coverage of most other major sports as well. As a result, there are now very few big sporting events that you can view in the UK without an expensive annual Sky subscription or by payment-per-view. Some of those sports that have “taken the Sky money”, including F1 motor racing, golf and cricket, have admittedly benefited financially, but they have also seen their popularity fall in terms of audience and actual participation. Sky’s latest act is to take over the exclusive rights to the “Royal Ascot” horse race meeting – one of the highlights of the “social” sporting season. It really shouldn’t be allowed.
