BECTU asks members to resist Sky takeover

BECTU has called on its members to contact their MP to demand that News Corporation's takeover bid for Sky should be passed to the Competition Commission.

The entertainment union wants to create a groundswell of pressure on culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, who is due to make the final decision on whether the Sky takeover should be subject to a lengthier probe.

Yesterday, BECTU advised its members to email their MP directly and sign a petition against the bid by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp to acquire the 61% of Sky that it does not already own.

The union has also called on Hunt to publish a report compiled by Ofcom into the takeover, which was submitted to his department on December 31.

Speaking at London School of Economics last week, Hunt declined to comment on whether Ofcom's report would be published, despite a widespread belief that the regulator has called for a Competition Commission investigation into the takeover.

BECTU is particularly concerned that a combined News Corp-Sky would control too much of the UK's media landscape, causing an erosion of the plurality of media voices.

"Once the referral is secured, BECTU will continue its support for the campaign against the takeover which threatens to narrow the range of voices and opinion expressed in the UK's media," said BECTU's assistant general secretary, Luke Crawley.

Speaking at a meeting in Parliament on January 12, Crawley also said that BECTU is concerned about what impact the takeover could have on Sky employees.

"Both BECTU and the NUJ have many members working at Sky on news and sports programmes and if Murdoch were to take control then by his own admission there would be drastic changes," he said.

"When speaking before a Parliamentary Committee in 2008 Murdoch went so far as to say that Sky would be more like Fox News except that 'nobody at Sky listens to me'. That is because under the current ownership there is an independent board of directors which is able to preserve that independence because News International is a minority shareholder.

"If Murdoch comes to own all of Sky it will give him too much power and influence, which will be bad for pluralism of the media and bad for our democratic society."