Ofcom Discussion

Sky Europe?

It is reported that Fox is in discussions for BSkyB to buy Sky Italia, which it owns outright, and Sky Deutschland, in which it has a controlling stake, to create a pan-European operator.

This raises the prospect of Sky wanting to offer the same range of programs across Europe. A quick glance at Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland sites already shows similarities between the sites and with BSkyB content.

Could this broadcasting giant be tempted to have a pan European approach to adult content too? Sky Hotel (Deutschland) has pay per view adult films so they are not totally averse to adult content, though the strength is unknown. Might they use an Italian or German licence to broadcast dodgy quiz shows, erotic films or outright sex to the UK?

If they did BT and Virgin would have to decide whether they wanted to compete for the same market or take the moral high ground and gradually haemorrhage viewers.

It could all be academic as the regulator might block the merger (Telegraph)

Well now this is interesting. Without getting carried away here then I'm assuming that the whole of SKY would be united under the same satellite dish, no more would you be pissing around putting up Hotbird and Astra1 dishes.

My understanding is ofcom could only regulate the UK Channels and not the European ones. The ITC back in the 1990's also had this issue too. One box, one dish and one subscription, could be very interesting

Babestation and co better up their game if they want to compete with their European counterparts

What if we voted to come out of Europe and it went through would that mean we are NOT part of this deal ? If we did go without Europe would that giveOfcom FULL control of our spectrum no more Dutch licences etc?

No I wouldn't imagine it would make a difference whether we're in Europe or not as it hasn't lessoned our censors views on adult material.

I fully expect ofcom to do their upmost to block the merger, they don't like the idea of non ofcom regulated channels making it onto our SKY EPG such as the various late night German ones

I know that the babe channels don't have the bottle to challenge ofcom but Murdoch will, he's a millionaire and won't be short of funds to take ofcom all the way to the highest court in the land if needs be as he's desperate for the merger to go ahead. Money talks and Murdoch won't go down without a fight, He will challenge ofcom, that is certain

(16-05-2014 14:54 )Scottishbloke Wrote:  He will challenge ofcom, that is certain

Murdoch won't challenge Ofcom. He's not interested in national TV licensing regulations. The idea of Sky buying Sky (Murdoch buying Murdoch) is to unify ownership of the operations, which is purely an administrative matter.

Yes but Murdochs Idea of SKY Europe is to have all the channels operating under the same satellite in order to not only unify the company but to increase customer revenue.

Ofcom have stated that they intend to block the move so that means Murdoch will have to challenge ofcom or he can say goodbye to his master plan. This is more than just an administration issue if you read the article properly.

^^^^ Ofcon are committed to keeping explicit sex off UK television. We have had 10 years of their censorship bullshit. It really makes no difference. They are only protecting themselves and their supporters by refusing to broadcast full R18.

How is their censorship benefiting British life? Not much, if at all.

They do, however, have the power to do it (backed by successive governments) and that is the end of it until someone challenges them in the courts.

Until then we will continue to go around in circles.

Ofcom's intent to block the move has little, if anything, to do with porn, licensing laws, or anything else. Murdoch is persona non-grata WRT to our political elite at the moment. The problem is, it's not politically expedient to be seen courting while at the same time the circulation of his newspapers means it's foolish to take him on directly. Monopolies and mergers commissions are appointed by the Home Secretary (iirc) and investigate whether a given deal is in the national interest; they have a legislative purview and are very much part of the Whitehall establishment.

Ofcom, on the other hand, are an 'independent' quango. They have the power to veto broadcasting deals without being publicly seen to be part of the Whitehall machinery. In this case Ofcom aren't being their usual censorious selves, they're acting as Whitehall's stalking horse. Murdoch's testing the waters to see if he's still in the bad books. Right now, 12 months before an election and with the Coulson saga and phone hacking scandals still rumbling on, politicians want to be seen as anti-Murdoch without actually stating they're going to be (to paraphrase Tony Blair) "Tough on Murdoch, tough on the causes of Murdoch".

Rupert will get his way, likely some time in 2016 is my guess, and BSkyB will upgrade digibox software to block channels which broadcast material considered to be in breach of UK television standards. Everybody* wins.

* Everybody with money or political power at any rate.

Interesting point there, I think another route SKY might go down is if you wish to watch say the German channels then you'd pay an additional fee or simply purchase another box that hasn't got the channels blocked or a more realistic option is the purchase of cards like what used to happen in 1990's before the onset of the digital era.

Each Country would have a separate card, One for the UK and so on. In this way anybody who wished to view the German channels would do so in the knowledge of the type of material they could receive rather than having the channels simply merged with our own.

Everybody's a winner. The viewers get more choice, Murdoch gets his millions and the censors are kept happy.

I can't imagine anything keeping the censors happy.