Sky Group

Last updated

Sky Group Limited
Sky
Company type Division
LSE: SKY
Industry
Predecessor
Founded2 November 1990;33 years ago (2 November 1990)
Headquarters Sky Campus,
Isleworth, Greater London
,
England
Area served
Europe
Key people
Products Direct-broadcast satellite, pay television, broadcasting, broadband and telephony services
RevenueDecrease2.svg £14.5 billion (2022)
Number of employees
32,000 (2021)
Parent Comcast (2018–present)
Divisions
Subsidiaries
Website skygroup.sky
Footnotes /references
[1] [2] [3]
Evolution of Comcast NBCUniversal
Comcast logo.svg NBCUniversal Logo.svg
1912 Universal Pictures is founded
1926 NBC is founded
1928Universal Cartoon Studios (later known as Universal Animation Studios) is founded
1943 Universal Television is founded
1953NBC begins first compatible color broadcasts, preceding other networks by nine years
1956NBC's first peacock logo debuts
1963American Cable Systems is founded
1964 Universal Studios Hollywood opens
1967NBC broadcasts the first-ever Super Bowl
1968American Cable Systems rebrands to Comcast
1972Comcast began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
1975Universal releases Jaws
1980PolyGram renames Casablanca Record & Filmworks to PolyGram Pictures
1982Universal releases E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
1985Universal releases Back to the Future
1986 General Electric buys NBC for $6.4 billion
1989NBC launches CNBC
1990 Universal Studios Florida opens
Law & Order premieres
Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting merge to form British Sky Broadcasting
1992 Dateline NBC premieres
1993Universal releases Jurassic Park
1994 DreamWorks Animation is founded
1996NBC and Microsoft launch MSNBC
1998Seagram acquires PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
Universal Television becomes Studios USA Television
1999PolyGram Filmed Entertainment is folded into Universal Pictures
Universal Studios Florida expands to become Universal Orlando Resort
2001Grand opening of Universal Studios Japan
Universal releases The Fast and the Furious
2002NBC acquires Telemundo and Bravo
Focus Features is formed
Comcast acquires AT&T Broadband for $44.5 billion
2003Universal becomes the first studio with five summer releases breaking the $100 million mark
2004GE and Vivendi merge NBC and Universal into NBCUniversal
2005 The Office premieres on NBC
Comcast sets up a joint-venture with PBS, Sesame Workshop & HIT Entertainment to form PBS Kids Sprout
Comcast & Time Warner Cable jointly acquire Adelphia Cable assets for $17.6 billion
2006 USA Network begins 13-year streak as #1 cable network in total viewers
2007 Illumination is founded
2010Universal releases Illumination's first film Despicable Me
2011Vivendi divested in NBCU; Comcast buys 51% of NBCU from GE, turning it into a limited liability company
NBCUniversal Archives is founded
2012Universal celebrates its 100th anniversary
NBCUniversal divests its A&E Networks minority stake
2013Comcast buys GE's remaining 49% of NBCU
PBS sells its Sprout stake to Comcast/NBCU
2014Comcast attempts to acquire Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion
NBCUniversal reaches a new long-term deal with WWE
2016NBCU acquires DreamWorks Animation
2017Sprout relaunches as Universal Kids
2018Comcast acquires Sky after a heated bidding war with 21st Century Fox
2019NBCU acquires Cineo Lighting
2020NBCU launches Peacock
2021Grand opening of Universal Beijing Resort

Sky Group Limited [4] is a British media and telecommunications conglomerate, which is a subsidiary of the American conglomerate Comcast, and headquartered in Isleworth. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Sky is Europe's largest media company and pay-TV broadcaster by revenue (as of 2018), [5] with 23 million subscribers and more than 31,000 employees as of 2019. [2] [6] The company is primarily involved in satellite television, producing and broadcasting. The current CEO is Dana Strong.

Contents

Initially formed in 1990 by the equal merger of Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting, BSkyB became the UK's largest digital pay television company. [7] In 2014, after completing the acquisition of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland, the merged company changed its name to Sky plc. [8]

Prior to November 2018, Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox owned a 39.14% controlling stake in the company; [9] on 9 December 2016, following a previous attempt under News Corporation that was affected by the News International phone hacking scandal, 21st Century Fox announced that it had agreed to buy the remainder of Sky, pending government approval. However, after a bidding war that included the Walt Disney Company (which was, in turn, acquiring most of 21st Century Fox's assets), US media and telecoms conglomerate Comcast acquired the entirety of Sky in 2018 for £17.28 per share. NBCUniversal, which is Sky Group's sister company, is also a subsidiary of Comcast.

Before the acquisition by Comcast, Sky was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index and had a market capitalisation of approximately £18.75 billion (€26.76 billion) as of 2018. [10]

History

BSkyB

Formation

UK satellite TV evolution.JPG

British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) was formed by the merger of Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting on 2 November 1990. [11] Both companies had begun to struggle financially and were suffering financial losses as they competed against each other for viewers. The Guardian later characterised the merger as "effectively a takeover by News Corporation". [12]

The merger was investigated by the Office of Fair Trading [13] and was cleared a month later since many of the represented views were more concerned about contractual arrangements which had nothing to do with competition. [14] The Independent Broadcasting Authority was not consulted about the deal; after approval, the IBA demanded precise details about the merger, stated they were considering the repercussions of the deal to ultimately determine whether BSB contracts were null and void. [15] [16] On 17 November, the IBA decided to terminate BSB's contract, but not immediately, as it was deemed unfair to 120,000 viewers who had bought BSB devices. [17]

Sam Chisholm was appointed CEO [18] in a bid to reorganise the new company, which, continued to make losses of £10 million per week. The defunct BSB's HQ, Marco Polo House were sold, 39% of the new company's employees were made redundant to leave just under 1000 employees, [12] many of the new senior BSkyB executive roles were given to Sky personnel with many BSB leaving the company. In April the nine Sky/BSB channels had been condensed into five, with EuroSport being dropped soon after the Sky Sports launch. [19] Chisholm also renegotiated the merged company's expensive deals with the Hollywood studios, slashing the minimum guaranteed payments. The defunct Marcopolo I satellite was sold in December 1993 to Sweden's NSAB , and Marcopolo II went to Norway's Telenor in July 1992 [20] after the Independent Television Commission (ITC) was unable to find new companies to take over the BSB licences and compete with BSkyB. News International received 50%, Pearson PLC 17.5%, Chargeurs 17.5%, Granada 12%, Reed International 2% of the new shares in the company. [21]

By September 1991, the weekly losses had been reduced to £1.5M a week, Rupert Murdoch said "there were strong financial marketing and political reason[s] for making the compromise merger instead of letting BSB die. Many of the lessons had been learnt with more than half the running cost of the combined company". Further cuts in losses were a direct result of 313,000 new customers joining during the first half of 1991. [22] By March 1992, BSkyB posted its first operating profits, of £100,000 per week, with £3.8 million weekly from subscriptions and £1 million from advertising, but continued to be burdened with £1.28 billion of debt. Stockbroker firm James Capel forecast BSkyB would still be indebted in 2000. [23]

In the autumn of 1991, talks were held for the broadcast rights for Premier League for a five-year period, from the 1992 season. [24] British television network ITV were the current rights holders for the Football League, and fought hard to gain the new rights. ITV had increased its offer from £18m to £34m per year to obtain the new rights. [25] BSkyB joined forces with the BBC [26] to make a counter bid. The BBC was given the highlights of most of the matches, while BSkyB paid £304m for the Premier League rights, giving them a monopoly of all live matches, up to 60 per year from the 1992–93 season. [27] Murdoch has described sport as a "battering ram" for pay-television, providing a strong customer base. [28] A few weeks after the deal, ITV went to the High court to get an injunction as it believed their details were leaked before the decision was taken. ITV also asked the Office of Fair Trading to also investigate since it believed Rupert Murdoch's media empire via the newspapers had influenced the deal. [29] A few days later neither action took effect, ITV believed BSkyB was telephoned and informed of its £262m bid, and the Premier League advised BSkyB to increase its counter bid. [30] BSkyB retained the rights paying £670m for the 1997–2001 deal, but was challenged by On Digital [31] for the rights from 2001 to 2004, thus it was forced to pay £1.1 billion which gave it 66 live games a year. [32] Following a lengthy legal battle with the European Commission, which deemed the exclusivity of the rights to be against the interests of competition and the consumer, BSkyB's monopoly came to an end from the 2007–08 season. In May 2006, the Irish broadcaster Setanta Sports was awarded two of the six Premiership packages that the English FA offered to broadcasters. Sky picked up the remaining four for £1.3bn. [33]

Becoming a public limited company

In October 1994, [34] BSkyB announced its plans to float the company on the UK and US stock exchanges, selling off 20% of the company. [35] The stock flotation reduced Murdoch's holding to 40 per cent and raised £900m, which allowed the company to cut its debt in half. Sam Chisholm said "By any standards this is an excellent result, in every area of the company has performed strongly". [36] Chisholm became one of the world's most highly paid television executives. [37]

In 1995, BSkyB opened its second customer management centre at Dunfermline, Scotland, [38] in addition to its original centre at Livingston which opened in 1989. BSkyB entered the FTSE 100 index, operation profits increased to £155M a year, and Pearson sold off its 17.5% stake in the company. [39]

Sam Chisholm resigned from BSkyB due to a rift with Rupert Murdoch in June 1997. [40] A week later, Murdoch was quoted as saying "I cannot understand the fuss; BSkyB was grossly overpriced", which caused further rifts with the new management. [41]

In 1997, BSkyB formed a partnership with Carlton and Granada to bid for the right for the new digital terrestrial network. In June, it was awarded the right to start the service, ONdigital, under the condition BSkyB withdrew from the group's bid. [42] In February 2003 BSkyB wished to renegotiate its deal with MTV to reduce its payment from £20m. Chief executive Tony Ball said "We're definitely prepared to stare them down if we can't get a sensible deal. MTV, and other channels, have done particularly well out of the growth of Sky but the opportunity for savings is now there and Sky will be taking it," he added. "MTV has done extremely well out of that original deal." [43] On 17 April 2003 BSkyB launched its own range of music channels Scuzz, Flaunt and The Amp, as part of its plan to create its own original channels for the platform. [44] Within 18 months the channels failed to make impact, and were outsourced to the Chart Show Channels company. [45]

Shortly afterwards it acquired Artsworld, giving a majority of subscribers full access to the channel. The buyout was part of James Murdoch's strategy to improve the perceptions BSkyB which could lead to potential new subscribers. John Cassy, the channel manager of Artsworld, said: "It is great news for the arts that a dedicated cultural channel will be available to millions of households." [46]

In early 2007 Freeview overtook Sky Digital with nearly 200,000 more subscribers at the end of 2006, while cable broadcaster Virgin Media had three million customers. [47] In July 2007, BSkyB announced the takeover of Amstrad for £125m, a 23.7% premium on its market capitalisation. [48]

BSkyB and Virgin Media announced that they had reached agreement for the acquisition by BSkyB of Virgin Media Television. Virgin1 was also a part of the deal and was rebranded as Channel One on 3 September 2010, as the Virgin name was not licensed to Sky. [49] [50] The new carriage deals are understood to be for up to nine years. [51] The deal was completed in July 2010 and Virgin Media Television was renamed Living TV Group.

In June 2010, News Corporation made a bid for complete ownership of BSkyB. However, following the News International phone hacking scandal, critics and politicians began to question the appropriateness of the proposed takeover. The resulting reaction forced News Corp. to withdraw its bid for the company in July 2011. [52] [53] The scandal forced the resignation of James Murdoch, who was the chairman of both BSkyB and News International, from his executive positions in the UK, with Nicholas Ferguson taking over as Chairman of BSkyB. [54] In September 2012, Ofcom ruled that BSkyB was still fit to hold broadcast licenses in the UK, but criticised James Murdoch's handling of the scandal. [55] On 28 June 2013, News Corporation was split into two publicly-traded companies; the company's publishing operations (including News International, renamed News UK) and broadcasting operations in Australia were spun into a new company known as News Corp, while the company's broadcast media assets, including its 39.14% stake in Sky, were renamed 21st Century Fox. [56]

European acquisitions

On 12 May 2014, BSkyB confirmed that it was in talks with its largest shareholder, 21st Century Fox, about acquiring 21st Century Fox's 57.4% stake in Sky Deutschland and its 100% stake in Sky Italia. The enlarged company (dubbed "Sky Europe" in the media) will consolidate 21st Century Fox's European digital TV assets into one company. [57] The £4.9 billion takeover deal was formally announced on 25 July, where BSkyB would acquire 21st Century Fox's stakes in Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia. BSkyB also made a required takeover offer to Sky Deutschland's minority shareholders, [58] resulting in BSkyB acquiring 89.71% of Sky Deutschland's share capital. The acquisitions were completed on 13 November. [8]

Sky plc

British Sky Broadcasting Group plc changed its name to Sky plc to reflect the European acquisitions, and the United Kingdom operations were renamed Sky UK Limited. Sky plc bought out the remaining minority shareholders in Sky Deutschland during 2015, using a squeeze-out procedure to obtain the remaining shares and delist Sky Deutschland on 15 September 2015. [59]

Competition around being acquired

On 9 December 2016, 21st Century Fox announced that it had made an offer to acquire the remainder of Sky plc for £11.7 billion at a value of £10.75 per-share. It marked Fox's second attempt to take over Sky, as its previous attempt under News Corporation was affected by the News International scandal. The two companies reached an agreement on the deal on 15 December, subject to regulatory approval. [60] [61]

Ofcom expressed concern that this purchase would give the Murdoch family "material influence over news providers with a significant presence across all key platforms" and "increased influence over the UK news agenda and the political process". However, the regulator did deem that a Fox-owned Sky would be "fit and proper" to hold broadcast licences, despite the recent sexual harassment controversies that had emerged at the US Fox News Channel, as there was no evidence to the contrary. [62] [63] [64] Avaaz opposed Ofcom's opinion, stating that the regulator "made mistake after mistake in deciding to give the Murdochs a clean bill of health to take over more of our media". [65]

The Walt Disney Company announced on 14 December 2017 that it would acquire 21st Century Fox, including its stake in Sky plc but barring specific US assets. Fox stated that this purchase would "not alter [its] full commitment and obligation to conclude our proposed transaction". Analysts suggested that Disney's proposed transaction could ease regulatory concerns over Fox's purchase of Sky, as the company will eventually lose its ties to the Murdoch family. Disney has a narrower scope of media ownership in the country than the Murdoch family. [66] Sky already has a relationship with Disney for its Sky Cinema service, holding pay television rights to its films in the United Kingdom and operating a dedicated Sky Cinema channel devoted to Disney content. [67]

A preliminary report by the Competition and Markets Authority issued January 2018 called for the insulation or outright divestment of Sky News as a condition of the purchase, so that it is editorially independent from the Murdoch family. [68] Sky had threatened to reevaluate the channel's continued operations if they "unduly impeded merger and/or other corporate opportunities available in relation to Sky's broader business". The channel has operated on a loss of at least £40 million per-year. [69] [70] In February 2018, Fox proposed the establishment of an independent editorial board, and committing to fund the network for at least 10 years. This commitment would be inherited by Disney after the completion of its purchase of 21st Century Fox. [71] [72] On 3 April 2018, Fox stated that Disney had "expressed an interest in acquiring Sky News", which would not be conditional on its proposal to acquire 21st Century Fox. [73]

A bidding war began 25 April 2018, when the competing US media and telecoms conglomerate Comcast (owner of NBCUniversal), announced a counter-offer for Sky at £12.50 per-share, or approximately £22.1 billion. [74] [75] [76] [77] NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke stated that purchasing Sky would roughly double its presence in English-speaking markets, and allow for synergies between the respective networks and studios of NBCUniversal and Sky. [78]

On 5 June 2018, Culture Secretary Matt Hancock cleared both 21st Century Fox and Comcast's respective offers to acquire Sky plc. Fox's offer was contingent on the divestiture of Sky News. [79] [80] On 12 June 2018, Comcast announced a US$65 billion counter-offer to acquire the 21st Century Fox assets that Disney had offered to purchase. [81] However, Fox subsequently agreed to an increased, US$71.3 billion offer from Disney instead. [82] On 15 June 2018, the European Commission gave antitrust clearance to Comcast's offer to purchase Sky, citing that in terms of their current assets in Europe, there would be limited impact on competition. Comcast included a 10-year commitment to the operations and funding of Sky News similar to that of Disney's offer. [83] [84] [85] On 19 June 2018, Disney formally agreed to acquire Sky News as part of Fox's proposed bid, with a 15-year commitment to increase its annual funding from £90 million to £100 million. [86]

On 11 July 2018, Fox increased its bid for Sky to £14.00 per share, valuing it at £24.5 billion. Comcast subsequently counterbid just hours later with an offer at £14.75 per-share, valued at £26 billion. [87] [88] On 19 July 2018, after Fox agreed to a Disney counter-offer, [89] [90] it was reported that Comcast had abandoned its bid for 21st Century Fox to focus solely on Sky. [91] [92]

On 20 September 2018, the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers ordered that a blind auction be held "in order to provide an orderly framework for the resolution of this competitive situation". In this process, Fox, followed by Comcast, made new cash-only bids for Sky. After these first two rounds of bidding, there would be a third round where both companies could make new offers. However, the third round of bidding would only be binding if both companies make a bid. The results were to be revealed on 22 September, and be confirmed by the start of trading on 24 September. [93] Comcast won the auction with a bid of £17.28 per-share, beating Fox's bid of £15.67. [94] [95] Sky plc had until 11 October to formally accept this offer. [96]

Following its auction victory, Comcast began to acquire Sky shares from the open market. On 26 September 2018, Fox subsequently announced its intent to sell all of its shares in Sky plc to Comcast for £12 billion. [97] [96] On 4 October 2018, Fox completed the sale of their shares, giving Comcast a 76.8% controlling stake at the time. [98]

Sky Group Ltd

On 12 October 2018, Comcast announced it would compulsorily acquire the rest of Sky after its bid gained acceptances from 95.3% of the broadcaster's shareholders with the company being delisted by early 2019. [99] Sky was delisted on 7 November 2018 after Comcast acquired all remaining shares. [100]

In August 2021, Sky Group signed a deal with ViacomCBS to launch Paramount+ in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria by 2022. [101] On 3 May 2022, it was announced that Paramount+ will launch on 22 June 2022 for Sky customers in Ireland and the United Kingdom. [102]

Management

List of former chairmen

  1. Rupert Murdoch (1990–2007)
  2. James Murdoch (2007–2012)
  3. Nicholas Ferguson (2012–2016)
  4. James Murdoch (2016–2018); second term

List of former chief executives

  1. Sam Chisholm (1990–1997)
  2. Mark Booth (1997–1999)
  3. Tony Ball (1999–2003)
  4. James Murdoch (2003–2007)
  5. Jeremy Darroch (2007–2021)

The first CEO of BSkyB was Sam Chisholm, who was CEO of Sky TV before the merger. Chisholm served in this position until 1997. He was followed by Mark Booth who was credited with leading the company through the introduction of Sky. Tony Ball was appointed in 1999 and completed the company's analogue to digital conversion. He is also credited with returning the company to profit and bringing subscriber numbers to new heights. In 2003, Ball announced his resignation and James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch was announced as his successor. This appointment caused allegations of nepotism from shareholders. [103]

On 7 December 2007, it was announced that Rupert Murdoch would be stepping down as BSkyB's non-executive chairman and would be replaced by his son, James. In turn, James stepped down as CEO of BSkyB, to be replaced by Jeremy Darroch. [104] It was estimated that Darroch would earn around £38.2 million from selling Sky to Comcast. He sold his 775,772 shares in Sky worth £13.4 million and would cash in on previously awarded bonus shares. [105]

In January 2021, it was announced that Darroch would be standing down as CEO, and will become executive chairman of Sky for the remainder of 2021, and will then be an advisor to the company. [106] He will be succeeded as CEO by Dana Strong. [106]

The current company directors are Comcast personnel: Michael J Cavanagh (Comcast senior VP & CFO), Arthur R Block (legal counsel) and David L Cohen (senior VP & CDO). [107]

Financial performance

Financial results have been as shown in the table. [108]

Revenue and profit or loss, by fiscal year
Year endedRevenue (£m)Profit/(loss)
before tax (£m)		Net profit/
(loss)(£m)
30 June 201813,585864815
30 June 201712,916803691
30 June 201611,965752663
30 June 20159,9891,5161,952
30 June 20147,6321,082865
30 June 20137,2351,257979
30 June 20126,7911,189906
30 June 20116,5971,014810
30 June 20105,7091,173878
30 June 20095,359456259
30 June 20084,95260(127)
30 June 20074,551815499
30 June 20064,148798551
30 June 20054,048631425
30 June 20043,656480322
30 June 20033,186128190
30 June 20022,776(1,276)(1,383)
30 June 20012,306(515)(539)
30 June 20001,847(263)(272)
30 June 19991,545(389)(285)
30 June 19981,434271249
30 June 19971,270314288
30 June 19961,008257–
30 June 1995778155–
30 June 199455093–
30 June 1993380(76)–
30 June 1992233(188)–
30 June 199193(759)–

In February 2019, The Economist magazine claimed that Sky enjoys gross margins of 50%. [109]

Current operations

Subsidiaries

Subsidiary companies of Sky Group
NameDetails
Sky UK Limited The original Sky Television, now a holding company for Sky's United Kingdom operations. [110]
Sky Subscriber Services LimitedOperating company for the Sky pay-television service. [111]
Sky In-Home Services LimitedHome installations of satellite dishes and set-top boxes. [112]
Sky Broadband Limited and Sky Home Communications LimitedOperating companies for Sky's broadband and telephony services, including Be Un Limited which was acquired from O2. [113]
Sky Ireland Limited Operating company for Sky pay-television service in Ireland. [114]
Sky Italia S.r.l. Operating company for Sky pay-television, broadband and telephony services in Italy. [115]
Sky Deutschland GmbH Operating company for Sky pay-television service in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. [116]
Sky Studios In June 2019, Sky formed Sky Studios with the production assets from Sky Vision. Excluding distribution which was transferred to sister company NBCUniversal. [117] [118]
Amstrad British electronics company acquired by BSkyB. [48]
Now An internet broadcast company owned by Sky.
Freesat from Sky A free satellite television service similar to Freesat and Freeview.
The Cloud Free Public Wi-Fi hotspot provider acquired by BSkyB. [119]

Ventures

Current venture operations of Sky Group
VentureSharePartnerGeneral information
A&E Networks UK 50% A&E Networks Operates Blaze, History, H2 and CI channels [120]
Sky Sports Racing 50% Arena Racing Company
Ginx TV Ltd50% ITV plc [121]
Jupiter Entertainment 60%
Skybound Stories50% Skybound Entertainment [122]
Comedy Central (British TV channel) 25% [123] Paramount British Pictures, part of Paramount Global/National Amusements
DTV Services Ltd20% Arqiva, BBC, Channel 4, ITV plc Manages and markets the Freeview brand [124]
SkyShowtime 50% Paramount Global (through Showtime Networks)

Sky services per country

Services offered by Sky Group divisions
DivisionCountriesYearsTelevisionBroadbandTelephony
Sky UK United Kingdom1990–Pay TV satellite, free TV satellite (Freesat from Sky), pay IPTV (Sky Glass/Sky Stream) DSL and FTTPLandline and mobile
Sky Ireland Ireland1998–Pay TV satellite DSL and FTTPLandline
Sky Italia Italy, San Marino, Vatican City 2003–Pay TV satellite, pay IPTV (Sky Q via internet/Sky Glass) FTTH and FTTCLandline and mobile
Sky Deutschland Germany, Austria, Switzerland (through Sky Switzerland)2009–Pay TV satellite——

Former operations

Subsidiaries

Former subsidiary companies of Sky Group
NameDetails
Sky España An over-the-top video streaming service in Spain. On 1 September 2020, Sky España ceased its own operations. [125]
Acetrax A video on demand movie rental service. Now closed down. [126]
Sky México (41.3%) – with Liberty Media and Grupo Televisa
Operating company for Sky pay-television service in Mexico. Sold their stake to DirecTV
Sky Brasil (80%) – with Liberty Media and Grupo Globo
Operating company for Sky pay-television service in Brazil. Sold their stake to DirecTV
Sky Vision Unit for distributing TV shows globally and investment in production assets. Assets split between Sky Studios and Universal Television Distribution following Comcast's takeover of Sky [127] [118]
Japan Sky Broadcasting  [ ja ](JSkyB) – with SoftBank Corp.
Operating company for Sky pay-television service in Japan. Sold to DirecTV and later absorbed into SKY PerfecTV!

Ventures

Former venture operations of Sky Group
VentureSharePartnerGeneral information
Australian News Channel 33.3% [123] Seven Network and Nine Entertainment and operated Sky News Australia Sold to News Corp Australia
Bad Wolf minority HBO, BBC Studios Sold to Sony Pictures Television [128] [129]
Beamly 10%Sold to Coty
Nickelodeon UK 40% [123] Paramount Networks UK & Australia, part of Paramount Global Sold to Paramount Networks UK & Australia

Stake in ITV

ITV plc has been the subject of a flurry of rumoured take-over and merger bids since it was formed. For example, on 9 November 2006, NTL announced that it had approached ITV plc about a proposed merger. [130] [131] The merger was effectively blocked by BSkyB on 17 November 2006 when it controversially bought a 17.9% stake in ITV plc for £940 million, [132] a move that attracted anger from NTL shareholder Richard Branson [133] and an investigation from media and telecoms regulator Ofcom. [134] On 6 December 2006, NTL announced that it had complained to the Office of Fair Trading about BSkyB's move. NTL stated that it had withdrawn its attempt to buy ITV plc, citing that it did not believe that there was any possibility to make a deal on favourable terms. [135] On 17 July 2014, BSkyB's 6.4% stake in ITV was sold to Liberty Global, valued at £481 million. [136]

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Sky Deutschland GmbH, branded as Sky, is a German media company that operates a direct broadcast satellite Pay TV platform in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It provides a collection of basic and premium digital subscription television channels of different categories via satellite and cable television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Now (British TV channel)</span> Former British satellite television channel operated by BSB (1990)

Now was a British television channel transmitted as part of the British Satellite Broadcasting service during 1990.

The foundation of the Premier League in English football occurred in the early 1990s. A proposal for the establishment of a new league was tabled at the end of the 1990–91 season. It received the support of representatives of all eighteen First Division clubs, as well as The Football Association (FA) through its "Blueprint for the Future of Football" publication. The Premier League was actualised in stages: the signing of the Founder Members Agreement on 17 July 1991, clubs handing a joint notice of resignation from the Football League, and the final go-ahead from the FA who administered affairs.

Tony Ball is a British television executive, former chairman of Kabel Deutschland and former CEO of BSkyB.

The British media company Sky UK has incurred criticism over the years, much of it centred on overcharging, anti-competitive practices, and the business practices and undue political influence of its one-time majority owner News Corporation.

The News Corporation takeover bid for BSkyB was a proposed takeover of British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) by News Corporation, the media conglomerate of Rupert Murdoch. The bid was launched in June 2010 but was withdrawn in July 2011 following the News International phone hacking scandal. News Corporation already owned 39.1% of BSkyB and held onto its stake following the collapse of the takeover bid. The takeover was an essential part of News Corporation's business strategy, not least as it would have made possible integration with other entities such as Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia. The Guardian went so far as to say that, "Without a full takeover of BSkyB, News Corp's global satellite strategy would look an unco-ordinated mess."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">21st Century Fox</span> American multinational mass media corporation (2013–2019)

Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., which did business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), also known simply as Fox, was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, following a spin-off of the publishing assets of the old News Corporation as News Corp.

This is a timeline of the history of Sky Television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney</span> Business acquisition held from 2017 to 2019

The acquisition of 21st Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company was announced on December 14, 2017, and was completed on March 20, 2019. Among other key assets, the acquisition included the 20th Century Fox film and television studios, U.S. cable channels such as FX, Fox Networks Group, a 73% stake in National Geographic Partners, Indian television broadcaster Star India, and a 30% stake in Hulu. Immediately after the acqusition, the holding company of the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Television Stations, Fox News Channel, Fox Business, Fox Sports 1 and 2, Fox Deportes, and the Big Ten Network was renamed Fox Corporation. Other 21st Century Fox assets such as the Fox Sports Networks and Sky were divested and sold off to Sinclair and Comcast, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fox Corporation</span> American mass media company, successor to 21st Century Fox

Fox Corporation is an American multinational mass media company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan. Incorporated in Delaware, it was formed on March 19, 2019, as a renaming of 21st Century Fox following its acquisition by The Walt Disney Company, which was closed on March 20, 2019. The company is controlled by the Murdoch family via a family trust with 39.6% ownership share, and by Rupert Murdoch himself to the effect of almost 40%.

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