OFT clears Sky's VMtv acquisition

The Office Of Fair Trading (OFT) has today cleared Sky's acquisition of the Virgin Media Television business, after opting against referring the £160m deal to the Competition Commission.

The OFT's approval, which follows the green light from regulators in the Republic Of Ireland in July, will see Sky make a final payment of £55m to Virgin Media to complete the deal.

Confident that regulators would place no obstacles in front of the sale, Sky wasted no time in renaming the VMtv business, which includes the Living, Bravo, Virgin1 and Challenge brands, as The Living TV Group.

The company has also rebranded the Virgin1 channel as Channel One, after opting against a licensing deal for Virgin's branding.

Last month, the Living TV Group's boss Claudia Rosencrantz expressed her admiration for Sky and said that she would "love" to work at the satellite broadcaster.