UK competition watchdog: Fox's takeover of Sky 'not in public interest'

Re: A good decision

But what does the wrinkly one have on the current 'Culture Media and whatever' Minister? Well he have the balls to tell Old Wrinkly to go back to get stuffed?

Somehow I doubt it.

As for heads in a Jar, you have forgotten public enemy no 1 (according to the Trumpster), Hillary with her side kick Obama... They'd love to have them stuffed and used for target practice. {joking}

Re: A good decision

Let's don't forget Gates.

Re: A good decision

>>>>> Murdoch belongs in a museum as a head in a jar. Next to Nixon, Blair and Zuckerberg...

Fuck that, turn his head into mulch and feed it to worms who you then feed to migrating birds to ensure he's spread far and wide and thus there's no possibility of him actually exhibiting the zombie capabilities he obviously possesses.

Re: A good decision

That would be the jar labelled Abi Normal...

Re: Mickey Mouse?

They've bought the feature film side and some of the TV production, not the news part.

Re: Mickey Mouse?

at least with Disney we will get mickey mouse news instead of fake news

Re: Irony

Alanis, is that you?

Re: Maybe the reason behind the Disney deal?

I thought the Disney deal was being considered as a sensible move for 21C Fox,

21C Fox were one of many mid-size companies in a consolidating market (particularly televisions), so getting in early while the content still has a premium value was a good option.

Re: Motivation For Purchasing Sky Entirely ???

Are these extremely rich people not content with their life ?

No. Which for the rest of us proles should be a great comfort, a form of natural justice, that the Lizard King will never have enough. And when he dies (which is well overdue), he'll go to his grave regretting that he didn't have more money, that he didn't get control of this company or that. It'll just be a shame that his revolting offspring won't be entombed with him when the time comes.

Re: Motivation For Purchasing Sky Entirely ???

It's simply down to him being evil and wanting more power. Once he has all this power he will try and achieve immortality as the evil prince of darkness. He also eats kittens.

Re: Motivation For Purchasing Sky Entirely ???

Shadmeister,

Murdoch's company used to totally own Sky I think. But had to sell most of it in order to get money for other stuff. I think he's always been sad that he sold it, as that meant he wasn't getting all the lovely profits.

it's not made a huge difference in control, as Sky's second biggest shareholder is an ally, so there's often been a Murdoch (or Murdoch ally) at the top of Sky anyway.

I'd thought they were selling the Sky stake to Disney, and only keeping the Fox telly stuff, because Disney already own a TV network in the US - so couldn't have another one. So in the end I'd be surprised if they don't do a deal where he can buy Sky now - in order to pass it on to Disney - if certain conditions are met on Sky News.

Re: And Don't Forget...

Dr_n wrote:

"Sky beamed into the UK illegally"

Actually back then he didn't need a licence, as he was on a communications satellite, as Astra was deemed to be back then. The licence requirement came later about the time of the BSB/SKY merger when the ITC took the merger opportunity to get that imposed.

He initially broadcast "Sky Channel" from Eutelsat for cable companies to distribute which beyond the scope of home users to receive apart from wealthy enthusiasts because of the size of dish required etc.

I was livid about the merger as I had both BSB and Sky. The Sky broadcasts were awful, always noisy fizzy backgrounds, but the BSB ones were great for the time, being fed with RBG into my Scart connector. In hindsight neither of them were good to last very long as time has now shown.

In credit to Sky, they did develop arguably the best digital TV platform in the world. It just worked. No need to keep retuning or messing around as channels were added and taken away automatically, and the picture quality was good, though it worsened later, as more and more channels were added to the transponders. If only Freeview was so easy. Why isn't it I wonder ?

It worsened even more as they got so greedy with their "sky" high subscriptions and destroyed live football on public channels. In my opinion it was insidious. The sports subs just went up, and up little by little. I was never a major sports fan, but I feel the financial pain of those who are. Then the pubs were forced to pay a lot more, and many of them just dumped the platform as they just couldn't afford it.

During all this most of the free channels became part of the basic sky package, so you had to pay and pay. Sky plus was good, but you had to keep paying up to watch your recordings. The box might have been yours, but the recordings you made on it certainly were not, even those of public broadcasters, who didn't mind private recordings being kept provided they were just that.

I dumped Sky six years ago, and my two sky dishes are now unused. Freeview and Netflix etc. fill my needs, and I am probably a couple of grand better off for it too. I don't miss Sky at all.

They pestered me for years afterwards with cheap offers to return, but I'll never go back. I was a subscriber continuously right from the start, in the late eighties initially using a stand alone Videocrypt unit connected to an Amstrad SRX 200. I think Sky's days could even be numbered, at least in its present form.

Re: While we're at it

Thanks for your interest Rupert.

Re: Murdoch's one redeeming feature

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Word is, it was a hostile takeover.