Rupert Murdoch plans to forge a new pan-European pay-TV giant with his British satellite broadcaster BSkyB paying 4.9 billion pounds (8.3 billion dollars) in cash to buy the media mogul’s television offshoots in Germany and Italy.
Until now, the German and Italian pay-TV operations had been owned by the US media group 21st Century Fox, which is also part of the Murdoch business empire.
“This transaction will create a world-class, multinational pay-TV business with enhanced headroom for growth and immediate benefits of scale,” said BSkyB Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch.
“The three Sky businesses are leaders in their home markets and will be even stronger together,” he said.
The new merged company will serve 20 million customers in three of Europe’s four biggest TV markets, BSkyB said.
Under Friday’s deal, BSykB will take over Sky Italia completely and acquire a 57.4 per cent stake in Sky Deutschland .
The agreement will also involve BSkyB transferring its 21 per cent stake, which is worth 382 million pounds, in the National Geographic Channel to 21st Century Fox.
