BSkyB ordered to sell ITV shares

Competition Commission ruling upheld

30 September 2008 12:34 GMT / By Katie Scott

Virgin Media will be celebrating.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal has upheld an earlier ruling by the Competition Commission that BSkyB must sell off some of its shares in ITV.

Virgin Media was amongst the companies that claimed that the 17.9% stake held by Murdoch and co. was "against the public interest".

It also argued that the initial Competition Commission decision to force BSkyB to reduce its stake from 17.9% to below 7.5% wasn't going far enough.

But that is now what is going to happen following on from this latest ruling by the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

And there will no doubt now be a bidding war for the stakes that Sky has had to give up.

Previous interested parties included Big Brother producer Endemol.

BSkyB bought the stake in ITV in November 2006 for around £940m, but will lose over two-thirds of this as the stake is now believed to be worth only £306m.

The Commission made the decision following fears that Sky could influence ITV strategy "against the public interest", such as blocking moves by ITV's board to bid for sports rights, or other activities that would threaten their own interests.

Full tags

Biz, Home Cinema, Virgin Media, ITV, Sky