The UK government has put Sky’s takeover of ITV’s media and entertainment business into formal political review. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said on Thursday that she is minded to intervene in the anticipated merger on public interest grounds specified in the Enterprise Act 2002: free expression of opinion in news media, plurality of views, and sufficient plurality of persons controlling media enterprises serving each audience. Sky and ITV have until October 20 to respond.
Sky, owned by Comcast, agreed terms on July 6 to acquire ITV Media and Entertainment Holdings for total consideration of up to 1.6 billion pounds, a deal that also includes a separate content agreement with ITV Studios reported at 2.1 billion pounds. The transaction would combine Britain’s largest pay TV broadcaster with its largest commercial free-to-air network and the ITVX streaming service.
Nandy went further than the existing statute. She said she is also minded to intervene on a new public interest ground, the availability of a wide range of high-quality programming on on-demand platforms, which is not currently in the Act, and that doing so would require legislation amending section 58 to extend the broadcasting plurality test to streaming. If she intervenes formally, Ofcom would assess the public interest issues and the Competition and Markets Authority the competition effects, before she decides whether a deeper investigation is needed.
The precedent matters beyond this deal: writing streaming into merger public interest law would make every future combination of broadcast and on-demand assets in Britain a potential plurality case.