James Murdoch has warned the Government that blocking News Corporation’s proposed takeover of BSkyB could threaten UK jobs and future investment in this country by the US media giant.
The FT reported this morning that News Corp’s chief executive for Europe and Asia said that from a ‘policy perspective’the Government needed to assess the benefit of having a world leading digital TV business ‘really centred in the UK marketplace with all of the things that it brings, versus potentially jeopardising an £8bn investment in the UK, with a prolonged plurality process.”
Murdoch told investors at the Morgan Stanley TMT conference in Barcelona that he did not think there were strong grounds for a public interest of plurality intervention from the UK authorities.
His warnings come after business secretary Vince Cable ordered broadcast regulator Ofcom to examine the proposed deal following the formation of an unprecedented alliance of leading print and broadcast media businesses who wrote jointly to the Government last month asking it to intervene in attempts to take full control of BSkyB.
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