Latest in Ofcom

Friends remains the most watched SVOD title in the UK as it emerged that half of British homes now take a streaming service. The classic sitcom topped the list for the first quarter of 2019, according to research from GfK, ahead of Amazon's The Grand Tour, Greg Berlanti's thriller You and NBC comedies The Good Place…

Sky News has been slapped on the wrist for broadcasting a repeat of an expletive-filled documentary about Harvey Weinstein during the middle of the day. The Comcast-owned broadcaster aired hour-long doc Weinstein: Hollywood's Reckoning, which tells the story of the disgraced movie mogul's downfall due to a raft of…

The multi-million-dollar deal between Discovery and the BBC to carve up multi-channel broadcaster UKTV has received regulatory approval in the UK. In April, the two companies finally came to an agreement on the future of the Flack broadcaster with Discovery taking control of three channels and BBC Studios acquiring…

Russia Today, the Russian state-backed international news broadcaster, could be banned from broadcasting in Britain after regulator Ofcom found that it had broken impartiality rules around the reporting of the poisoning of former-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. The media regulator said that it was…

Britain's top TV regulator Ofcom has urged broadcasters to join together to create a domestic SVOD service capable of taking on the likes of Netflix and Amazon. CEO Sharon White called for the BBC to lead the development of a service that brings together content from the British public broadcaster, ITV, Channel 4 and…

Fox News breached a number of impartiality rules in the UK before its closure earlier this year, according to British regulator Ofcom. The channel, which ceased broadcasting in the UK on August 29, was found to have breached the rules in January through Hannity and in May through Tucker Carlson Tonight. Ofcom says Hann…

The UK Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport moved slightly closer today to making a decision on whether to ask the Competition and Markets Authority to review 21st Century Fox’s £11.6 billion ($14.6 billion) bid to acquire the 61% of Sky that it does not already own. The office, led by culture…

21st Century Fox's $14.6 billion bid to acquire the 61% of Sky that it does not own now depends on the remedies, or so-called "undertakings in lieu,” it can offer, analysts say. They could include an agreement by Fox to divest all or part of Sky News, which might satisfy British regulator Ofcom and the Secretary of…

UPDATE, writethru, with Fox response: Rupert Murdoch’s latest attempt to acquire the long-coveted remainder of pay-TV giant Sky still has some hurdles to clear. Speaking in the House of Commons today, UK Culture Secretary Karen Bradley said she was “minded” to refer 21st Century Fox’s bid to take full ownership of Sky…

Britain's media regulator Ofcom has formally submitted the findings of its review of 21st Century Fox's proposed £11.7B (($14.7B) takeover of pay-TV giant Sky as planned. The report, which was conducted to assess issues of media plurality, was received by UK Culture Secretary Karen Bradley on Tuesday and, as expected…

As expected, UK regulator Ofcom has been instructed to investigate 21st Century Fox’s £11.7B ($14.5B) bid to acquire the 61% share of pay-TV giant Sky which it does not already own. Moments after Rupert Murdoch's company formally asked the European Commission to approve the takeover on March 3, the British government s…

Moments after Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox had formally asked the European Union to approve its £11.7B ($14.3B) takeover of pay-TV giant Sky on Friday, the UK government has said it is likely to investigate the acquisition to assess issues of media plurality. After Fox filed an intent to EU antitrust regulators…