News Corp's BSkyB takeover bid: what happens next?

The business secretary has asked Ofcom to investigate the proposed takeover – on what grounds? Ofcom will put together a report examining the impact of the proposed takeover on media plurality in the UK market. The intervention, under section 67 of the Enterprise Act 2002, specifically requires the regulator to look at public interest considerations. What will Ofcom do now? Ofcom is expected to call for interested parties to file a submission in the next few days. The regulator is likely to allow only a short window for submissions giving a view on the impact of the deal. Ofcom will deliver its report, which will state a position on whether or not there is a case for further investigation of the deal, to Cable by 31 December. What role does Cable have? Cable will use Ofcom's report to decide whether to refer the proposed takeover to the Competition Commission. If he does that the Competition Commission will have "up to" 24 weeks to conduct a full-investigation and return its decision to the business secretary. Cable will then have 30 days to deliver his final decision on whether to clear or block the deal. Why is the European Commission involved? Due to the scale of the £12bn deal the European Commission has also launched an initial probe on competition grounds and is due to report back by 8 December . If the commission decides a more in-depth "phase II" investigation is necessary this could then take up to a further 125 working days. What is News Corporation saying? Rupert Murdoch's company said it is "confident" the Sky deal "will not adversely affect media plurality in the UK". Murdoch has said opponents of the takeover are "small thinkers" trying to place "restrictions on growth" . What are opponents of the deal saying? An unprecedented alliance of UK media organisations, including the BBC, BT, Channel 4 and the publishers of the Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and Daily Mirror, sent a letter to Cable last month calling for the News Corp/Sky deal to be investigated. They said the "proposed takeover could have serious and far-reaching consequences for media plurality".