“News Corporation continues to believe that its proposed acquisition of the shares in BSkyB it does not own will not lead to there being insufficient plurality in news provision in the UK. The company has put forward extensive and detailed evidence that the level of plurality in the UK has increased since 2003 (when the Communications Act was enacted) – and since the ITV plurality review in 2007 when no concerns were found about the sufficiency of plurality.
News Corporation believes that Ofcom’s analysis is deficient in a number of ways. While Ofcom acknowledges that the combination of News Corporation and BSkyB would have a minimal impact on consumers and would not enhance News Corporation’s ability to influence the news agenda, it nevertheless concludes that the transaction may be expected to operate against the public interest.
News Corporation has made a submission to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport setting out a number of issues with the Ofcom report. However, in the interests of progressing to a transaction, News Corporation has submitted an undertaking that we believe addresses Ofcom’s concerns. We will continue to engage constructively with the regulatory process.”
