8/5/2023 0 Comments Vox media comcastand that letting him own Sky outright was “not in the public interest.” regulators poured cold water on it when they determined Murdoch already controlled too much news media in the U.K. After that scandal died down, he tried again with a bid in 2016. newspapers had hacked the phone of a murdered school girl. Murdoch withdrew his bid after it was revealed reporters at one of his U.K. Murdoch has wanted to buy out the rest of Sky since 2011, just before a hacking scandal hit his media empire. rights to the Premiership, further highlighting its motivation to buy out Sky and keep it from Disney.)īut Comcast’s Sky offer could be better for investors than Murdoch’s for two key reasons: 1) it’s higher, but more importantly 2) it’s more likely to pass muster with U.K. (Nilay Patel, The Verge’s editor in chief and a massive EPL fan, points out Comcast’s NBC has U.S. It owns TV rights through 2021 to the English Premier League, which draws a bigger audience than the NFL. In fact, one of Sky’s biggest assets is its sports rights. It’s a clear way to grow its business, especially since one of its biggest moneymakers, ESPN, has been faltering in the ratings. Sky also has a online streaming box called Sky Q that sets up a foothold for selling more streaming content.Īnd you can see why Disney would want Sky, or a bigger international presence. A deal would immediately increase its customer base almost 80 percent. Comcast, the largest pay TV distributor in the U.S., has 29 million. It has 23 million subscribers across Europe. The Justice Department had already sued to block AT&T’s proposed merger for Time Warner, citing, in part, what it considered Comcast’s violation of conditions it agreed to when it bought NBCUniversal. Murdoch was concerned Comcast would have a harder time passing a review from U.S. “In a world where you’re getting into competition with Amazon, Google and Facebook, having scale” is necessary, Roberts told the Wall Street Journal about the deal.Ĭomcast had been interested in Fox’s international business for a while, and, according to sources, it offered a richer deal than Disney. Disney CEO Bob Iger, Fox’s Murdoch and Comcast’s Roberts are in a face-off for the few businesses remaining that will help their companies grow as Netflix and Google and Facebook steal audiences. That’s why the merger landscape has turned into a fight for assets. To be in the media business now is a zero-sum game since there’s little more room to grow in the U.S. If fewer people are paying for TV, fewer people are watching TV, meaning less in fees and advertising. Disney and Comcast and Fox (as well as CBS and Viacom and Discovery) get a cut of the monthly fees that distributors collect from subscribers, as well as the advertising it sells to that audience. The reason Sky is key has to do with the media business more broadly - fewer people are paying for TV and the TV subscriber base underpins the entire media industry. Fox already owns 39 percent of Sky, as well as a big chunk of Star, a pay TV service in India. That matters to Disney, since its interest in Fox’s business is partly about gaining Fox’s international assets. Led by CEO Brian Roberts, Comcast’s price for Sky is 16 percent higher than Murdoch’s deal, an offer that is still undergoing regulatory review. What’s more interesting is how that could end up spoiling Disney’s $52 billion deal to buy a significant chunk of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox - which ultimately includes Murdoch’s offer to buy out Sky. Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal*, announced today it made a surprise $31 billion bid for European pay TV company Sky.
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