Comcast’s Sky bid boosted by UK gov’t

US media giant Comcast has received a boost in its bid to take over European satcaster Sky after the UK government said it was unlikely to refer the deal to competition authorities.

Matthew Hancock

Culture secretary Matt Hancock said he was not minded to refer the merger as it did not raise public interest concerns that would meet the government’s threshold for intervention.

The news is a major boost for Comcast’s £22.1bn (US$31bn) bid for the broadcast group, which was revealed last month.

Comcast’s bid rivals a long-standing £11.7bn offer from 21st Century Fox to buy the 61% of Sky that it doesn’t already own, which was resurrected at the end of 2016.

The initial Fox bid was withdrawn amid the phone-hacking scandal that engulfed Rupert Murdoch’s News International newspaper titles in 2011.

Fox’s more recent attempt has become mired in regulatory issues after UK regulator the Competition and Markets Authority found it was not in the public interest, citing concerns over media plurality. The government still has not given its approval to that deal.

As part of its offer, Comcast has promised not to acquire a majority stake in any UK newspapers, one of the major concerns over the Murdoch-backed bid.

Hancock will make his final decision on the Comcast offer by June 4, with interested parties having until the end of May 24 to respond to his preliminary decision. In a short statement, Sky said it noted the announcement.

Earlier this month reports also linked Comcast with a US$52bn bid for the 21st Century Fox assets that The Walt Disney Company had seemed set to acquire.

Disney agreed a US$52.4bn stock deal for 21st Century Fox assets, including its film and TV studios, US cable networks and international channels, in one of the biggest media stories of 2017.

Despite Comcast’s rumoured interest, Fox last week unveiled the executive team that would lead its newly slimmed-down news- and sport-focused US business should the sale of its other assets to Disney go through.