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Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has said she is “minded to intervene” in the proposed £1.6bn deal for Sky to buy ITV’s media and entertainment division.
Nandy said there were reasonable grounds to believe the deal could affect free expression in the media and the variety of Britain’s news landscape.
Sky said it would “carefully consider” a letter from the culture secretary and “engage constructively” with the review into the deal.
“We remain confident that bringing Sky and ITV’s media and entertainment <a it said.
ITV welcomed the letter and said the deal would help it “compete with global streaming platforms, benefiting viewers, advertisers and the UK creative industries”.
But Nandy has told Sky and ITV that she is considering issuing a public <a s concerns.
A Sky spokesperson said: “We have
An ITV spokesperson said: “We welcome the publication of the secretary of state’s ‘minded to’ issue a public interest intervention notice letter as was expected and look forward to fully co-operating in the process.
“This is another important milestone in the regulatory review process towards creating a UK player with the scale and reing viewers, advertisers and the UK creative industries.”
Nandy’s intervention would be made under a new public interest consideration.
This would need legislation to be brought forward, given that current laws do not cover the effect of a merger on streaming or on-demand programmes.
She said: “If I decide to intervene on the basis of this new public interest consideration, I will bring forward legislation… to extend the application of the public interest consideration relating to the availability of a wide range of broadcasting to on-demand programmes.”
Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
Sky
ITV
