Cable TV
The proposed acquisition of the remaining shares in broadcaster BSkyB by media giant News Corp has got the rest of the media in a bit of a tizz. The main issue concerns ‘media plurality' and the worry is that if too much media is owned by one company, that company will have excessive influence on national discussion and the flow of information.
As a result, Vince Cable - the business secretary - has asked Ofcom to investigate the matter with regard to media plurality (as opposed to general competition) and submit a report by the end of the year. You can see the criteria on which an intervention on media plurality grounds would be based here.
"On the basis of the information and submissions available to me, I have decided that it is appropriate to issue an intervention notice in this particular case," said Cable. "The independent experts at Ofcom will now investigate and report to me on the media plurality issues that may arise from this proposed acquisition."
Here's the statement we got from News Corp: "News Corporation notes today's decision by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills to issue an intervention notice on media plurality grounds in regard to its proposed offer to acquire the outstanding shares in British Sky Broadcasting.
"News Corporation is confident that the proposed investment will not adversely affect media plurality in the United Kingdom and looks forward to discussing any substantive issues with the relevant authorities."
While we welcome scrutiny of an already-powerful media owner increasing its influence over the dominant pay-TV company in the UK, we can't help feeling some of the wailing and gnashing-of-teeth about media plurality is a tad disingenuous.
Right now the BBC is the dominant news provider on TV, radio and online, so it has far more power to influence the nation that News International, which already owns a big chunk of Sky anyway, and also owns the Sun, the Times and their Sunday equivalents. Nobody could argue that the newspaper market isn't competitive and there will still be the other terrestrial channels for TV news competition.
You have to wonder how much of the beeb's opposition to this is influenced by James Murdoch's frequent attacks on the BBC and the license fee model. He thinks it's unfair that News Corp should have to compete with an organisation that doesn't face the same commercial pressures. Maybe the beeb is worried that if News Corp gets too good at news the license fee will be reduced yet further.
Talking of commercial pressures, it's well documented that News Corp has pioneered the use of ‘paywalls' as an alternative way of extracting revenue from its content. Earlier this week it announced that the Times and ST have amassed over 100,000 paying customers since the paywall went up last June.
Around half of these are monthly subscribers - which includes iPad and Kindle apps - with the rest PAYG. A further 100,000 print subscribers have activated digital accounts since the launch, but it's debatable whether they should be added to any assessment of whether this tactic is working.
