BSkyB in talks to create European pay TV giant with Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia

BSkyB has confirmed it is in preliminary talks about acquiring 21^st Century Fox’s 57% stake in Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia to create a pan-European pay TV giant. 

A deal involving all three companies could create a European pay TV powerhouse with 18.5 million subscribers that would have considerable power in negotiating content deals, including sports rights.

In a statement, Sky noted “speculation about about a potential acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s interests in Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia” and said confirmed that it had “initiated preliminary discussions with 21st Century Fox to evaluate the potential acquisition of its pay-TV assets in Germany and Italy”.

Sky’s statement followed a Bloomberg report over the weekend that a deal – worth about €10 billion – could be signed as early as this summer. The figure represents a €2 billion premium on Fox’s stake in Sky Deutschland and 100% control of Sky Italia, valued at €3 billion and €5 billion respectively.

According to BSkyB, “at the right value, this combination would have the potential to create a world-class multinational pay TV group”. However the company said discussions are still at a preliminary stage and that no agreement has been reached on terms, value or the structure of the transaction.

BSkyB said that any deal would be subject to Sky Deutschland’s stock continuing to trade on an undisturbed basis. If a deal to acquire the 21^st Century stock went ahead, BSkyB would be obliged to make an offer for the publicly traded stock, which it would do without offering a premium.

Sky has created a committee composed of independent directors and excluding 21^st Century Fox-affiliated directors to handle negotiations.

According to the Bloomberg report, the deal under discussion would leave 21^st Century Fox’s stake in BSkyB at its current level of 39%. Fox’s predecessor company News Corp was famously forced to abandon its attempt in 2011 to acquire full control of BSkyB in the wake of the UK phone hacking scandal.

According to a report in the Sunday Telegraph at the weekend, citing unmanned sources, UK media regulator Ofcom would likely block any deal to combine the three businesses that resulted in 21^st Century Fox acquiring overall control of the UK pay TV operator. Accordng to the paper, a deal could be blocked despite Rupert Murdoch’s splitting up of his media empire into publishing and media arms – News Corp and 21^st Century Fox respectively – as he remains in control of both companies.

21^st Century Fox said in a statement: “Over the years we’ve had numerous internal discussions regarding the organizational and ownership structure of the European Sky-branded satellite platforms. From time to time these conversations have included BSkyB, however no agreement between the parties has ever been reached.”