Murdoch wants BSkyB - will he get it?

[David Guyatt]

My New Year's prediction is that Murdoch will get his way. No question about it.

The below reported activity by Culture Secretary, Jeremy "Silly" Bunt, is pure stage dressing designed to bamboozle the public of the United Kingdom of Great Britain into thinking that their grovelment is not completely owned, lock, stock and two smoking orifices by wealthy and powerful interests.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec...-news-corp

BSkyB bid: Cautious Hunt set to reject approach from Murdoch

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt likely to refer controversial £8bn BSkyB buyout to Competition Commission on findings of Ofcom report

Dan Sabbagh
guardian.co.uk, Friday 31 December 2010 17.11 GMT


Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt is expected to refer the News Corporation bid for BSkyB to the Competition Commission.

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt is expected to refuse any requests by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation to meet or communicate with him directly as he weighs up whether to hold up the company's controversial £8bn buyout of satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

So sensitive is the case that Hunt, his civil servants and advisers are expected to rebuff any external lobbying – so they can base their judgement only on a analysis of the public interest issues raised by the proposed deal that was completed by media regulator Ofcom today.

News Corporation, which assiduously wooed Hunt's Conservative Party before the election, wants to meet with the minister or at least send him a dossier of information to help him make his final decision. However, the company had not been given any assurance that it would be able to do so.

Ofcom spent New Year's Eve completing its report – which is expected to recommend a further, six month long enquiry by the Competition Commission. Hunt will have about 10 working days to decide how to proceed, and will publish both the report and his verdict in the middle of January.

Hunt's team are determined not to trip up in what they describe as an "awfully difficult case" after watching business secretary, Vince Cable, being stripped of his powers to regulate the media industry in the wake of his unguarded "war on Murdoch" comments made to two undercover journalists from the Daily Telegraph.

The Conservative cabinet minister has complete discretion as to whether to follow Ofcom's advice or not, leaving him the choice of clearing the proposed deal or referring it to the Competition Commission. However, it will be a major surprise if he does not follow the regulator's advice in a quasi-judicial process that means that he is not supposed to discuss the matter or take any guidance from David Cameron or other members of the coalition government.

At issue is whether News Corporation's buyout of BSkyB would lead to the creation of a media company that with £7.5bn of UK turnover is so large that rival newspapers and broadcasters are progressively unable to compete. Objectors to the deal include an unlikely alliance of the owners of the Daily Mail, the Mirror, the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian, who argue that the tie-up would lead to a loss of "media plurality" in the UK.

Ofcom has been trying to quantify Rupert Murdoch's media power, asking media analysts as to how it might be possible to measure how far the combined News Corp and Sky would dominate news attention. Chris Goodall, from Enders Analysis, was among those asked to suggest methodologies that the regulator could use.

He produced a report based on the number of minutes a day people spend reading newspapers, and watching and listening to broadcast news that concluded that the enlarged company would produce 22% of all the news that Britons consume daily – second to the BBC at 39%, and well ahead of the next largest commercial provide, the company behind the Daily Mail at 10.5%.

[David Guyatt]

Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell said the transfer would "ensure there was no conflict of interest" after the business secretary was secretly taped by undercover journalists.

I wonder who's conflicted interests O'Donnell may be referring to?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12101085

31 December 2010 Last updated at 17:47

BSkyB takeover: Ofcom submits report to Jeremy Hunt

Responsibility for ruling on the takeover was passed to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt

Media watchdog Ofcom has submitted its report on News Corporation's takeover bid for broadcaster BSkyB to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, it has said.

But the contents of the report will remain confidential for the time being.

Business Secretary Vince Cable asked Ofcom to advise if the plans would restrict the range of UK media voices.

But the PM passed responsibility for a final ruling to Mr Hunt after Mr Cable was recorded saying he had "declared war" on News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch.

Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell said the transfer would "ensure there was no conflict of interest" after the business secretary was secretly taped by undercover journalists.

Mr Murdoch's company, an international media giant which owns UK newspapers the Sun, News of the World, the Times and Sunday Times, already has a 39% stake in BSkyB. It is attempting to buy the remainder.

Rival media owners, including the heads of the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail groups, the BBC, BT and Channel 4, complained the move could have "serious and far-reaching consequences for media plurality".

EU approval
And if Ofcom raises concerns, it could pave the way for a lengthier and more detailed Competition Commission probe.

The bid has already been approved by the EU, which said it would not "significantly impede" competition in Europe.

An Ofcom spokesman said: "Ofcom can confirm that it has submitted its report into the public interest considerations to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport."

The watchdog would not comment on the details of the report until it was published by the government.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Unfortunately, Vince Cable's out of control mouth and ego means that he no longer controls this decision.

I'm only surprized that it was Telegraph "undercover" journalists posing as constituents who taped Cable bragging feverishly, rather than Murdoch hacks. Perhaps Vince would have spotted a fake sheikh at his constituency surgery.

That said, it is now clear that "undercover" journalists are increasingly being used not to investigate governmental and business crime, but to obtain blackmail material to be used as leverage by newspaper tycoons against politicians.

See here:

In an exclusive interview, former Plaid Cymru MP, and a member of the committee, Adam Price says he was warned by a senior Conservative committee member that if the committee pursued this plan, the tabloids might punish him by looking into his personal life.

"We could have used the nuclear option. We decided not to, I think to some extent because of what I was told at the time by a senior Conservative member of the committee, who I know was in direct contact with NI execs, that if we went for her, called her back, subpoenaed her, they would go for us - which meant effectively that they would delve into our personal lives in order to punish them and I think that's part of the reason we didn't do it. In retrospect I think that's regrettable," price said.

"It's important now that the new inquiry stands firm where we didn't. Politicians aren't above the law but neither are journalists including Rupert Murdoch's bovver boys with biros."

Another MP on the committee makes similar claims, who also sat on the committee, talked of being intimidated.

He told Channel 4 News: "A former Labour cabinet minister has confirmed to me this week that News International talked to my former colleagues in No. 10 Downing St to ask them whether I would withdraw my aggressive line of questioning and their lawyer tried to have me removed from the committee on the grounds that I was suing them for libel and may have a potential interest so yes they did try and stop me conducting my enquiries.

"I felt it was undue influence, yes. I felt very frightened and intimidated."

http://deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/show...pens/page2

[David Guyatt]

Indeed Jan.

I wonder if the boys at the Bridge were asked a favour by their Oz Uncle to ask a favour of their favourite news outlet to set Cable up just to get rid of an otherwise insurmountable obstacle to his growing media empire.

I've always wondered who runs the dirty digger? Bigger business interests? US/western spook-a-rama, or a combination of several covert interests?

[David Guyatt]

Will this ultimately lead to an investigation by Rozzer's Plc into the Daily Bellylaugh's covert association with the Dirty Digger, or would anything to do with the Press Baron of Oz inevitably be destined for the toxic waste-bin at the Cameron-friendly Director of Public Prosecution?

PCC to investigate Daily Telegraph's covert recording of Lib Dem MPs

PCC to investigate Daily Telegraph's covert recording of Lib Dem MPs
Senior Liberal Democrats complain that paper embarked on a 'fishing expedition' that was not justified in the public interest

Was the Daily Telegraph sting illegal?

Dan Sabbagh
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 13 January 2011 11.51 GMT


Vince Cable was the most high profile MP targeted by the Daily Telegraph. Photograph: Andrew Winning/Vince Cable

The Press Complaints Commission today kicked off an investigation into the Daily Telegraph's covert recording of Liberal Democrat ministers, following a formal complaint from the party's president.

Tim Farron MP is understood to have written to the commission complaining that the newspaper embarked on a "fishing expedition" in which there was no justification for secretly recording MPs at their constituency surgeries.

The PCC acknowledged it had received the complaint and said it was "looking into the matter". The investigation will hinge on whether the use of clandestine methods was justified "in the public interest".

Clause 10.2 of the PCC's editors' code of practice says that "engaging in misrepresentation or subterfuge" can "generally be justified only in the public interest and then only when the material cannot be obtained by other means".

The PCC also believes the secret recording can only be used when there is a "prima facie" likelihood of acquiring information critical for a news report it has in the past ruled against "fishing expeditions" in which journalists hoped to entrap someone into an unfortunate or embarrassing disclosure.

Telegraph reporters posed as constituents of several Lib Dem MPs in December, and used covert recording in an effort to establish whether their private thoughts were in line with their public statements as coalition ministers. No other political party was similarly targeted.

The biggest victim was Vince Cable who told two young female reporters that he had "declared war on Murdoch" which resulted in the business secretary being stripped of his responsibilities for media and telecoms competition issues. However, most of the other revelations were quickly forgotten.

Many Lib Dems were left seething at the newspaper's tactics, with senior Lib Dems believing if journalists are allowed to record MPs at their surgeries it will impossible for parliamentarians to speak frankly to members of the public. Others complained that they would have made the same comments if they had been asked on the record.

Days after Cable's embarrassing disclosure, he told his local newspaper, the Richmond and Twickenham Times, that when "somebody who isn't a constituent falsifies their name and address and comes in with a hidden microphone it completely undermines the whole basis on which you operate as a local MP".

The Daily Telegraph editor, Tony Gallagher, is understood to have privately indicated he would welcome a PCC inquiry, and the newspaper has consistently said it believed there was a public interest justification for its tactics.

However, the newspaper's revelations ran into controversy when Cable's comments on Rupert Murdoch leaked out of the newsroom and were revealed by the BBC's Robert Peston.

A spokesperson for Telegraph Media Group said: "There is a clear public interest in the Daily Telegraph publishing this story. The Daily Telegraph takes the Press Complaints Commission code extremely seriously and has always adhered to it."

Sir George Young, leader of the House of Commons, said during business questions this morning: "I think members from both sides of the house should be concerned about the tactics that were used. I think journalists posing as constituents when they are not, raising fictitious with MPs, taping them without their knowledge I think this all risks prejudicing the relationship between a member of parliament and his constituent at his advice bureau. And it doesn't seem to me to be responsible journalism."

[Jan Klimkowski]

The PCC acknowledged it had received the complaint and said it was "looking into the matter". The investigation will hinge on whether the use of clandestine methods was justified "in the public interest".

Clause 10.2 of the PCC's editors' code of practice says that "engaging in misrepresentation or subterfuge" can "generally be justified only in the public interest and then only when the material cannot be obtained by other means".

The PCC also believes the secret recording can only be used when there is a "prima facie" likelihood of acquiring information critical for a news report it has in the past ruled against "fishing expeditions" in which journalists hoped to entrap someone into an unfortunate or embarrassing disclosure.

Telegraph reporters posed as constituents of several Lib Dem MPs in December, and used covert recording in an effort to establish whether their private thoughts were in line with their public statements as coalition ministers. No other political party was similarly targeted.

The biggest victim was Vince Cable who told two young female reporters that he had "declared war on Murdoch" which resulted in the business secretary being stripped of his responsibilities for media and telecoms competition issues. However, most of the other revelations were quickly forgotten.

My own view is that the Press Complaints Commission will acknowledge that it was a "fishing expedition". However, because the reporters harpooned a whale, namely a cabinet minister revealing clear and extreme bias ("I've declared war on Murdoch's empire") in a matter where he was the minister with responsiblity for a mutli-billion pound deal, the fishing expedition will be found to be justified.

In fact, the implications of a ruling against the Telegraph would be devastating for investigative journalism. It would mean that a politician's words could not be published in this scenario, and that is wrong.

I'm still angry at Cable. This was pure ego on his part, and failure to take his ministerial responsibilties seriously.

[David Guyatt]

The unpleasant smell of a done deal....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan...orporation

Cameron-Murdoch meeting will not affect BSkyB decision, says No 10
Spokesman says Jeremy Hunt will decide 'alone' whether to refer News Corp bid, after PM met James Murdoch at Christmas

Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Monday 24 January 2011 14.09 GMT



Rupert Murdoch with his son James, who had dinner with David Cameron over the Christmas period. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Reuters
Downing Street today insisted any Christmas meeting between David Cameron and James Murdoch would have no impact on the government's handling of News Corp's bid to take full control of BSkyB.

The prime minister's spokesman said Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, would decide "alone" whether to refer to the Competition Commission News Corp's bid to buy the 61% of BSkyB it does not own.

Downing Street, which was shaken on Friday by Andy Coulson's resignation, faces renewed questions about its links with News Corp after the Independent disclosed today that James Murdoch met the prime minister for dinner over Christmas at the Oxfordshire home of the News International chief executive, Rebekah Brooks. The dinner with Murdoch, the Europe and Asia chairman of News Corp, took place days after Cameron stripped Vince Cable of his powers over media takeovers and handed them to Hunt.

The Guardian revealed last week that Cameron had been a guest of Brooks over the Christmas period. A Downing Street source denied last week that the meeting had taken place on Christmas Day, but declined to confirm or deny whether the prime minister had met Brooks over the Christmas period.

Today the prime minister's spokesman declined to confirm whether Cameron had met James Murdoch or whether he would speak to his father, Rupert, the News Corp chairman and chief executive, at the Davos World Economic Forum this weekend. The spokesman said: "Clearly, the prime minister does meet with people from the media from time to time. That is not at all unusual for prime ministers."

Downing Street said Hunt would abide by the law, which says he has to decide on his own, in a quasi-judicial capacity and without reference to other ministers, whether to refer the BSkyB bid. It is understood that Ofcom has recommended that the bid should be referred.

The Downing Street spokesman said: "On the bid process ... the culture secretary Jeremy Hunt is considering the report and he makes the decision in a quasi-judicial role. It is his decision alone."

Asked how any meeting with James Murdoch might affect the decision, the spokesman added: "It would have no bearing on that decision, which is a decision taken by Jeremy Hunt and Jeremy Hunt alone."

Downing Street faced pressure on another front after Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat climate change secretary, accused the Metropolitan police of failing to investigate phone-hacking allegations properly. Coulson resigned as the Downing Street director of communications on Friday after he said the renewed allegations about phone hacking during his time as editor of the News of the World were making his job in No 10 impossible.

Coulson resigned as News of the World editor in 2007 after the jailing of the paper's former royal editor and a private investigator over illegal phone hacking. Coulson has always denied knowledge of wrongdoing and blamed a "rogue reporter".

Huhne cast doubt on that defence and accused the Met of reacting to his calls for a full inquiry last year by "scurrying back to Scotland Yard" and dismissing the idea in an afternoon. "We know the police were not keen on the subject, because when I called for a very clear review of this, the police scurried back into Scotland Yard, spent less than a day reviewing it, and popped out in time for the six o'clock news to say they had discovered no further evidence," he told BBC1's The Politics Show on Sunday.

Asked about Huhne's comments, the prime minister's spokesman said today: "The position at the present time is that the Crown Prosecution Service are carrying out an assessment of the information that is held by the Metropolitan police. That process is under way and it is up to the CPS to make a decision on their assessment. The prime minister's position is that if there are allegations of illegal behaviour, then those allegations need to be taken very seriously, but in all cases it is a matter for the police and the CPS."

The spokesman said any complaints about the Met's handling of allegations should be made to the force's commissioner and to the Metropolitan Police Authority.

[David Guyatt]

BskyB spent £7 million buying itself for Murdoch.

Now that's a headline.

I thought there were laws against this sort of thing? I must be getting old.

Done deal and all that.

BSkyB spends £7m on News Corp bid
Broadcaster sees half-year profit rise 26% as customer base tops the 10 million mark

Mark Sweney
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 27 January 2011 07.53 GMT


BSkyB has grown its customer base to 10.9 million. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty

BSkyB has admitted that it has spent £7m in relation to News Corporation's bid to take full ownership, as the company hit its long-term target set by James Murdoch of passing the 10 million customer mark.

The satellite TV group beat analyst consensus figures on adjusted pre-tax profits of £477m in the six months to December, leading the BSkyB chief executive, Jeremy Darroch, to increase the interim dividend by a further 11% to 8.74p.

However, the company fell short of forecasts of net new customers at 140,000 in the three months to the end of December, with analyst predictions averaging 153,000. BSkyB had a total customer base of 10.09 million at the end of last year.

BSkyB claimed the fastest growth in broadband customers in two-and-a-half years with 204,000 net additions in the three months to the end of December, taking the total customer base to just over 3 million.

The company added 343,000 new HD customers in the period, taking the total number to 3.5m up 68% year on year. BSkyB said that a total of 24% of customers now taking all three of TV, broadband and telephony. The "churn rate", the proportion of customers leaving the company, was 9.5%. Average revenue per user a key metric for analysts hit £541, up from £492 in the same period in 2009.

Total revenue rose 15% to £3.19bn for the six months to the end of December, with adjusted operating profit rising 26% to £520m. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 19% to £677m.

Reported profit before tax for the six-month period was £467m, up from £371m for the same period in 2009. Operating profit was up 19% at £491m on a reported basis while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 14% to £648m.

"The business has delivered a half year of outstanding performance, with record product sales and strong double-digit growth in revenue, profit and cash flow," Darroch said. "In particular, high definition continued to grow strongly and we achieved our highest broadband growth for more than two years. Looking ahead, we are cautious on the economic outlook for 2011, while remaining very confident in the long-term opportunity for the business."

The City was impressed with BSkyB's results, with the company's share price hitting a 52-week high of 773p in early trading today before settling slightly to 764p.

City analysts including Numis and Jefferies were also impressed with a dramatic cut in net debt, down 44% year on year to £945m. The strong performance led Jefferies to raise its expectation of News Corporation's necessary bid price for Sky from 760p to 800p a share.

"BSkyB's strong results strengthen the board's position that it will not accept less than 800p from News Corp," said Jefferies analyst Nick Bell.

BSkyB also said that it had notched up costs of £7m relating to the News Corporation proposal to take over the 61% of the company it does not already own.

"During the period, the group incurred advisory fees in relation to the News Corporation proposal and will continue to incur these fees as the process progresses," the company said.

News Corporation has offered the culture secretary Jeremy Hunt specific undertakings thought to involve increasing the independence of Sky News in order to push the deal through on media plurality grounds.

BSkyB reminded that if merger clearance is either not granted or "subject to a material remedy" then News Corporation will "reimburse the company for costs incurred up to a maximum of £20m".

In its previous results update, BSkyB said that it had spent £2m in the period of less than four months from receiving the 700p proposal during June to the end of September.

BSkyB also announced the acquisition of wireless internet service provider The Cloud, which has 22,000 hotspots in Britain, Germany and Sweden, that will see it go head to head with BT and O2. Mobile operator O2 is to roll out a national Wi-Fi network through partnerships with restaurants, shops and high street retailers.

The BSkyB chief financial officer, Andrew Griffith, said that the deal was "firmly" under £50m in value and that the company would now be launching a new service, Sky Anywhere, to more easily allow customers to access content on multiple devices.

He said that particularly since the arrival of Apple's iPad, the company had found "very strong usage of our entertainment content, news and sports outside the home" with Sky Anywhere aiming to "bring it all together" for those accessing on the move. Sky Anywhere will also combine access to the existing Sky Player and Sky Mobile TV services.

Griffith said that although The Cloud has hotspots in other European markets, the acquistion was "primarily for market leadership in the UK".

Darroch said that Sky 3D Europe's first 3D television channel, which launched in October has so far been taken up by about 70,000 existing Sky households, with "thousands" of homes continuing to sign up. The service is currently offered for free to Sky HD subscribers.

He said that the company was "very early into 3D" and that the focus at this stage is to continue to focus on building content for the fledgling service. He added that Sky Anytime+, BSkyB's long-awaited move into offering full video-on-demand, would soon see the addition of key content from its £150m, five-year deal with HBO. On 1 February the company is launching a new channel, Sky Atlantic, to house HBO programming including Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men and The Sopranos.

The company said that following acquisition of Living TV last July, home to shows including Grey's Anatomy and Sons of Anarchy, the network contributed £60m in revenue for the period, with £45m of this from advertising. However, the business ran up £49m in costs; of that, £33m was related to programming and £3m to marketing. BSkyB also took an exceptional charge of £22m "principally relating to redundancy payments and the early termination of a pre-acquisition contract".

Overall BSkyB's advertising revenues were £236m for the period, 40% higher year on year thanks to the consolidation of Living TV. Excluding Living TV, ad revenue was up 14% year on year at £191m. BSkyB now accounts for 17.4% of the total TV advertising market.

The company said that programming costs increased by 15% year on year to £1.05bn with "around half" of the year-on-year increase due to the acquisition of new sports rights. Marketing costs increased by £75m year on year to £613m for the period. The cost of a single new subscriber is £354, up £34 year on year.

[David Guyatt]

I'm busy writing a headline for the coming day Murdoch's contentious bid for full ownership of BskY is approved by the British grovelment, but I'm having a little difficulty.

This is my first attempt:

"Dirty Digger Disbursed Ducats for BskyB Decision".

Anyone with a better version please state it here...

[David Guyatt]

Interesting story in the Spook-o-graph today.

Sounds to me like CYA.

But I wonder if Vince Cable will ever use his nuclear weapon?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb...le-remarks

Daily Telegraph calls in investigator over leak of Vince Cable remarks

Paper's owner understood to have called in investigative firm Kroll to discover who leaked Cable's comments about Murdoch to the BBC

James Robinson
The Guardian, Saturday 12 February 2011

The owner of the Daily Telegraph is understood to have called in private investigative firm Kroll to discover who at the newspaper leaked Vince Cable's comments about Rupert Murdoch to the BBC after it decided not to publish them.

Cable told two undercover Daily Telegraph reporters last year he had "declared war" on the media mogul by referring his offer to buy out BSkyB to the media regulator Ofcom.

The paper published other comments made by Cable on 20 December, but omitted his quotes about Murdoch from its report.

Those remarks were picked up by the BBC's business editor, Robert Peston, and published on his blog.

Cable was subsequently stripped of his powers to block media mergers by David Cameron, and they were handed to the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt.

It is understood that four employees from the secretive corporate investigators Kroll have began interviewing Daily Telegraph staff, starting with members of the IT department.

The circumstances surrounding the leak have been the subject of intense speculation. Some industry insiders alleged that the Telegraph chose not to publish Cable's comments about Murdoch because it believed it would lead to his sacking as business secretary, removing a potentially serious obstacle to Sky's efforts to buy out BSkyB.

Telegraph Media Group, which also owns the paper's Sunday sister title and the Spectator, is a member of an alliance of media groups which is opposed to News Corp's bid to take full control of BSkyB.

The paper vigorously denies pulling the story for commercial reasons, and insists it was an editorial decision. Senior figures at the Telegraph have argued privately that Cable's comments about bringing the coalition government down if the Liberal Democrats are "pushed too far" were far more significant than his remarks about a rival media proprietor.

It chose to lead the paper on Cable's assertion in a secretly recorded conversation that: "I have a nuclear option, it's like fighting a war. They know I have nuclear weapons, but I don't have any conventional weapons. If they push me too far then I can walk out of the government and bring the government down, and they know that."

Only a handful of people at the paper knew about the existence of the tapes and management are furious that Cable's comments were handed to rival news organisations. One executive said at the time the paper had been "betrayed".

It is unclear how long the Kroll investigation will last, or who it plans to interview, but it would be unusual if it didn't include the paper's journalists.

Cable has complained to the Press Complaints Commission about the paper's use of "subterfuge".

A spokesman for Telegraph Media Group said it did not comment on internal security matters.