The continuing saga of the battle over Britain's ITV continues as Richard Branson blasted Rupert Murdoch, saying that it was a "cynical" attempt to control British media when he bought a 17.9 percent stake in ITV recently.
Branson, who is the largest stakeholder in the cable group NTL, whose name will be changed to Virgin Media, had his eyes on ITV as an acquisition for the very purpose of challenging BSkyB and their current domination of the British pay TV industry.
"This move is seriously damaging to the interests of viewers, programme makers, artists and shareholders and the time has come for regulators, politicians and consumers to finally show that they're willing to stand up to reckless and cynical attempts to stifle competition and 
secure creeping control of the British media," Branson said.
BSkyB responded saying: "In its short history Sky has increased competition in the fast-changing media and now broadband and telephony sectors and has consistently been first at giving consumers more choice in entertainment and a wide range of innovations that they enjoy."
Branson wants Britain's Office of Fair Trading to look into whether Sky has violated what is called a "general merger provision" - part of the 2002 Enterprise Act - which doesn't allow shareholders with over a 15% stake in a company to have "material influence" over commercial decisions.
John Fingleton, the CEO of the Office of Fair Trading, will inquire into the deal and listen to opposition to the purchase.
Bah, Branson is crying like a spoiled brat because Mean, old man Rupert down the street beat him to the cookie jar.
Murdoch is like a modern day Andrew Carnegie. Or perhaps more like W.R. Hurst.
Not that I am a fan of Murdoch, but I think this has more to do with his building a global empire in media than it does anything else. Still, the idea of that much media being controlled by only a handful of people is way too Orwellian for my tastes.
Posted by: The Judge | November 22, 2006 6:51 PM | Permalink to Comment