Print    Email

Email To		[Close]
		You must make entries in all fields
Your Email
Your Name
Send to Email
		Send

United Kingdom's Court of Appeal has ruled that the UK-based pay-TV provider British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) owned by Rupert Murdoch requires reducing its stake in ITV.

BSkyB had appealed to keep its stake in UK’s biggest commercial television network, ITV as 17.9%. But as the latest ruling comes from the Court of Appeal, BSkyB has to slash its stake in the media firm to keep it below 7.5%.

While BSkyB says that it “notes the decision by the Court of Appeal in relation to BSkyB's shareholding in ITV. We will review the judgement and order carefully and consider next steps in due course,” in a press statement.

BSkyB had bought its 17.9% stake in ITV for 940 million pounds in 2006. The move has been seen as one to prevent merger of ITV with US cable company NTL (now rebranded as Virgin Media).

The Competition Commission had earlier ruled that BSkyB’s stake in ITV gave it undue influence in the UK media and was not in the public interest.