The right kind of choice
A source close to the deal has told The Guardian that satellite TV giant BSkyB is on the verge of buying all the TV channels owned by its rival - Virgin Media. "We are absolutely steaming ahead, and it should be done, if not by the end of this week, then next week," said the source. There was no official comment from either company.
Virgin Media Television's channels business owns Virgin 1, Living, Bravo and Challenge. It's understood that Sky would shell-out £150-£160 million for them in the culmination of what have been lengthy negotiations. The
The Guardian report also suggests that RTL, which owns Five, is looking to flog the channel and is speaking to anyone that will listen. In the past two years, it seems, RTL has dropped its valuation of Five from €600 million to €100 million. That's got to chafe.
Finally, BSkyB continues to chunter about the strategic review undertaken by the BBC Trust. An open letter from Graham McWilliam, Group director of corporate affairs at BSkyB, accuses the BBC Trust of failing to discharge its responsibility to set the Beeb's strategy. He argues that, with the commercial sector delivering more than ever, further scaling back of the Beeb's operations would best represent the interests of licence fee-payers.
"It is important to recognise that the interest of license fee payers is not identical to the interest of the BBC," wrote McWilliam. "License fee payers want provision of content from a wide range of sources, including the commercial sector."
All good points, and we agree that the Beeb shouldn't be responsible for stifling innovation and growth in the commercial broadcasting sector. But it's hard to reconcile this concern he claims BSkyB has about ensuring a wide range of content sources with its decision to buy the content arm of its main competitor.
