How much will BSkyB shareholders care for their orphaned news channel?

It's all very well for Rupert Murdoch to strike a deal with the government over spinning off Sky News into an independent company. But has anybody asked BSkyB's shareholders? In order to take full control of BSkyB, the soon-to-be octogenarian will have to up his initial £7.5bn offer of 700p a share substantially – analyst Richard Greenfield of BTIG reckons 875p might do it. A few investors have been huffing and puffing about 950p, although that's ambitious. Vexingly, though, the separation of Sky News, in the cause of appeasing the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is likely to involve BSkyB's existing investors retaining shares in the "orphan" news channel – leaving them with a minor holding in a loss-making company. A queue of potential independent chairmen for Sky News is already forming. And the business could eventually prosper on its own – could it branch out into a CNBC-style financial channel? Or bolster its digital division to give the FT's bloggers a run for their money? Its birth, though, is likely to be an awkward one.