默多克欲借收购杀进德意付费电视市场

    鲁伯特•默多克部分拥有的有线电视公司英国天空广播集团（British Sky Broadcasting Group）正在计划收购两家欧洲广播公司，以便将旗下的付费电视业务扩展到整个欧洲。

    英国天空广播集团周一表示，他们就认购德国和意大利的付费电视资产问题与二十一世纪福克斯公司（21st Century Fox）展开了初步协商。如果协商成功，这笔交易将造就一个拥有约2,000万用户的广播业巨头，这个数量几乎两倍于天空广播集团所拥有的1,050万用户数量。

    天空广播集团希望收购福克斯公司在德国天空卫视（Sky Deutschland）所持有的57%股份以及意大利天空卫视（Sky Italia）的全部股份，依据福克斯公司上周的收盘价计算，前者的收购价格约为44亿美元。默多克在德国天空卫视和意大利天空卫视都拥有股份，一直希望能把这两家公司整合倒天空广播集团旗下。天空广播的此次收购将延续欧洲媒体业的合并趋势。

    《金融时报》（the Financial Times）Lex专栏副主编奥利弗•拉尔夫说：“也许面对这样的合并趋势，天空广播集团认为自己必须得壮大起来。”

    默多克旗下的福克斯公司目前持有39%的天空广播集团股份。拉尔夫表示，天空广播壮大以后，福克斯是否还希望收购它更多股份，这个问题依然有待观望。默多克在2011年就失去了对这家英国广播公司的所有权，此前他也曾尝试过收购它部分股份，但由于新闻集团（News Corp.）旗下的英国报纸因行为不端而遭到指控，收购计划只能放弃。

    扩张后的天空广播集团不仅能够在产品开发上节约成本，而且在体育节目或电影合同的竞标上也将具有更大的影响力。不过，用户增长前景较为明朗的只有德国方面的业务，而意大利付费电视用户的数量在过去的三年里一直在下降。（财富中文网）

    译者：徐黄兆

    British Sky Broadcasting Group, a cable television company partly owned by Rupert Murdoch, is looking to buy two other European broadcasters in an effort to extend its pay-TV business across Europe.

    BSkyB (BSYBY) said on Monday that it is in preliminary talks with 21st Century Fox (FOX) to acquire its pay-TV assets in Germany and Italy. If successful, the deal would create a broadcasting behemoth with about 20 million subscribers, nearly doubling BSkyB's 10.5 million customers.

    BSkyB wants to acquire Fox's 57% stake in Sky Deutschland, worth about $4.4 billion based on the company's closing share price last week, as well as the whole of Sky Italia. Murdoch owns stakes in both Sky Deutchland and Sky Italia, and has long wanted to unite them under the BSkyB banner. An acquisition by BSkyB would continue a trend of consolidation in Europe's media sector.

    "Maybe it thinks it has to bulk up in the face of that," said Oliver Ralph, deputy head of Lex at theFinancial Times.

    Murdoch's Fox currently owns a 39% stake in BSkyB. Whether or not Fox would want to acquire more shares of a bulked-up BSkyB is open to question, said Ralph. Murdoch tried to acquire the part of the British broadcaster that he did not already own in 2011 but gave up amid allegations of misconduct at News Corp.'s U.K. newspapers.

    A bigger BSkyB could generate cost savings in product development and have more clout when bidding for sports or movie contracts. But only Germany would promise much growth: The number of Italian pay-TV subscribers has declined over the past three years.