Sky Europe deal gets EC nod

European Union regulators have approved UK satcaster BSkyB’s £5bn (US$8.33bn) takeover of its sister broadcasters in Italy and Germany.

BSkyB agreed to buy out 21st Century Fox’s stakes in the Italian and German pay TV businesses in July and the European Commission has now given the deal the greenlight after deciding that broadcaster competition would not be reduced as the three companies operate in separate markets with different audiences.

“BSkyB’s activities are mainly focused in the UK and Ireland, Sky Deutschland’s activities are mainly focused in Germany and Austria and Sky Italia’s activities are mainly focused in Italy,” the commission said.

The deal will see the UK firm take complete control of Sky Italia and a controlling 57.4% stake in Sky Deutschland. In Italy, Sky Italia is the biggest pay TV operator while Sky Deutschland has experienced recent growth in Germany.

The enlarged multinational ‘Sky Europe’ pay TV provider will serve an estimated 20 million subscribers, with the satcaster hoping that the move will allow it to make further in-roads into the European pay market, which stands at more than 97 million households across the three countries.

The deal was first mooted in May and sees BSkyB paying £2.07bn in cash plus its 21% stake in National Geographic Channel for Sky Italia and £2.9bn for Sky Deutschland.

Earlier this week 21st Century Fox COO Chase Carey refused to rule out another bid to take full control of BSkyB. Fox withdrew its bid to buy the 60.9% of the UK satcaster that it didn’t already own following the phone-hacking scandal in 2011.