BSkyB offers to give up a slice of its ITV voting rights

LONDON - BSkyB has offered to sacrifice almost one fifth of its voting rights in ITV in an attempt to hang onto its 17.9% share in the broadcaster.

In a letter made public by the Competition Commission late last week, Rupert Murdoch's pay-TV business put forward plans to hand over 3% of its voting rights in ITV to an independent trustee.

BSkyB would most likely appoint a company specialising in investment management as trustee, which would vote as it saw fit rather than in line with BSkyB's board.

The broadcaster hopes that the move will appease the mergers and monopolies watchdog, which has expressed concern about BSkyB's shock takeover of ITV last November.

The Competition Commission has been investigating the acquisition and earlier this month said that BSkyB's stake in ITV would result in "a substantial lessening of competition" in British television.

Although BSkyB's stake is below the 20% limit allowed by the Communications Act, the commission said there was motivation and opportunity for the pay-TV group to weaken ITV.

By reducing its voting rights to 14.9% BSkyB believes that it would not be able to exert undue influence on ITV's strategy.

This proposal is unlikely to win over the commission as it could be seen as a "behavioural" remedy. Cable operator Virgin Media is also unlikely to be placated by BSkyB's latest plans.

Virgin Media plans' to take over ITV were scuppered by BSkyB's sudden £940m buy-out of the commercial broadcaster last year.

Sir Richard Branson, a major shareholder in the cable group, said the takeover would protect BSkyB from increased competition in the pay-TV market.

Virgin Media has written to the commission to complain about the sale, saying that BSkyB's stake is "problematic".

The commission is due to publish its final recommendations by the end of the year.

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