Murdoch BSkyB takeover has implications for Ireland

IT WASN'T a surprise that Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable asked Ofcom, the British media super regulator, to investigate the proposed take by News Corporation of BSkyB.

At present, News Corporation owns a range of media firms including 20^th Century Fox, Fox TV, My Space, Times Newspapers, the News of the World and Sun papers, The Wall Street Journal and Harper Collins, and are 39% shareholders in BSkyB, the number one satellite TV provide in Britain and Ireland.

News Corp have bid £12billion to take full control of BSkyB, a move which, if approved, would make Rupert Murdoch the most important owner of media content in Britain, overtaking even the publicly-funded BBC in terms of market power. His son, James, is the chief executive of BSkyB.

If the Murdochs fully owned BSkyB their media companies would, according to The Financial Times (which opposes the takeover) control "37% of national newspaper circulation and for 35% of TV revenues".

The FT, part of the Pearson Group, who own Penguin books and 50% of The Economist, are just one of many media groups opposed to the Murdoch buy-out. The three companies printing the Mail, Telegraph and Guardian newspapers are opposed to the takeover, as is the Director General of the BBC.

Ofcom will investigate the implications of the takeover for media plurality in Britain and the Business Secretary may then refer the proposal to the Competition Commission. Ofcom must report back by December 31st.

It might seem like a tortuous process but at least there is one, unlike Ireland. Last year, the then Broadcasting Commission of Ireland was investigating the media ownership of Denis O'Brien.

His Communicorp radio company owns Today FM, Newstalk, 98FM in Dublin and Spin FM. When Communicorp bought Today FM, FM104 and Highland radio for €200 million in 2007, the BCI ordered the group to sell FM104 as they owned too many radio stations in Dublin.

O'Brien subsequently built up a multi-million shareholding in Independent Newspapers of 26%. It is now 18.6%. In 2009, the BCI concluded:

Applying the provisions of the Ownership and Control Policy (2008), the commission has determined that Mr O'Brien does not have control of, or substantial interests in, an undue amount of communications media.

Communications Minister Eamon Ryan: How much does he care?

Since 2002, 89 media mergers have been sanctioned in Ireland, only three with conditions. In the last few weeks, O'Brien is reported to have invested €200,000 in the ailing Phantom FM and now has a minority stake in the station, meaning that he now has interests in five of the radio stations Dubliners listen to daily.

Finally, there is the impact of BSkyB in Ireland, where it has over 600,000 subscribers and is inching towards 10 million subscribers between Britain and Ireland by the end of 2010.

BSkyB is the largest provider of multichannel TV in Ireland but is not subject to Irish media regulations.

So expect the BSkyB takeover story to run and run but don't expect anyone in the Irish Government to take an active interest in what happens.