The satellite broadcaster BSkyB and UK cableco Virgin Media have reached an agreement for the sale of Virgin Media Television (VMtv) portfolio of channels to Sky, together with a number of other agreements providing for the carriage of certain Sky standard and HD channels.

The main reason is that Virgin Media decided to concentrate on the core business of a superfast broadband service.

Virgin Media has completed the sale of Virgin Media Television to BSkyB after receiving regulatory approval in the Republic of Ireland. Virgin Media Television (VMtv) has been renamed the Living TV Group.

Sky has acquired Living, Livingit, Challenge, Challenge Jackpot, Bravo, Bravo 2 and Virgin1 and their related websites. VMtv, previously known as Flextech Television, becomes the Living TV Group. In completing the acquisition, Sky has paid Virgin Media an initial £105 million (€125 million) in cash, with a further £55 million due once regulatory clearance has been obtained from the UK.

Sky will take responsibility for selling advertising for the acquired VMtv channels from January 2011. New carriage agreements were secured for the wholesale distribution of Sky's basic channel line-up over the Virgin Media cable TV service. For an extra wholesale fee, Virgin Media will have access to 16 of BSkyB’s high-definition (HD) channels. A range of content from Sky portfolio will also made available through Virgin’s on-demand TV service. The Virgin name will not be licensed to Sky. Virgin still owns 50% of the UKTV channels, a joint venture with BBC Worldwide. According to analyst reports, Virgin Media channels registered £140.5 million in revenues in the year to March 2010.

After regulatory approval in the Republic of Ireland, UK consumer and competition authority the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) decided to examine whether BSkyB’s acquisition of Virgin Media Television is likely to raise any regulatory issues in the UK. The OFT said it would examine whether the deal resulted in the creation of a merger situation under the 2002 Enterprise Act, and a lessening of competition in the marketplace.

L'articolo è estratto da Turning Digital, la newsletter quindicinale focalizzata sui temi della TV digitale e dei broadband content ed è parte dell'offerta multiclient di ITMedia Consulting.

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