BSkyB's office in Dunfermline, Scotland. Image via Wikimedia Commons
BSkyB, the British satellite broadcasting channel partly owned by Rupert Murdoch, is attempting to establish itself as the largest broadcaster in Europe with a €6.1bn bid to purchase Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia.
If the deal is to go through, BSkyB will own Sky Italia outright, while purchasing a 57pc stake in Sky Deutschland would buy out 21st Century Fox’s ownership of the two channels, according to Engadget.
This deal may well make BSkyB the largest TV company in Europe, with access to more than 20m viewers. It would also be a significant windfall for Murdoch.
This windfall is expected to fund Murdoch’s pursuit of Time Warner, having recently bid of US$80bn to buy the media conglomerate that includes channels CNN and the HBO subscription channel.
BSkyB has seen continuing growth in the last number of years. The company’s most recent report reveals the number of connected homes doubling in the space of a year to 5.5m in the UK.
BSkyB has also pushed a number of new services to compete with the growing powers of Virgin Media and BT, particularly the latter, who has added serious competition to BSkyB’s dominance of sports coverage for the last number of years.
