{"id":20784,"date":"2018-02-27T12:44:21","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T11:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/videoweek.com\/?p=20784"},"modified":"2018-02-27T12:44:21","modified_gmt":"2018-02-27T11:44:21","slug":"comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"Comcast Makes \u00a322.1 Billion Bid for Sky"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/comcast_sky.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20785 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/comcast_sky.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/comcast_sky-65x65.png 65w, https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/comcast_sky-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/comcast_sky.png 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>US cable giant Comcast has put in a \u00a322.1 billion bid for Sky, an attempt to gatecrash 21st Century Fox\u2019s ongoing takeover attempt which has found itself help up by the UK\u2019s competition authority. Comcast\u2019s offer of \u00a312.50 per share represents a 16 percent premium to shareholders over Fox\u2019s bid for the 61 percent of Sky it doesn\u2019t already own.<\/p>\n<p>The move is framed by Comcast CEO Brian L. Roberts as a way for the America\u2019s biggest cable company to establish itself further in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSky and Comcast are a perfect fit: we are both leaders in creating and distributing content,\u201d said Roberts. \u201cComcast intends to use Sky as a platform for growth in Europe. We already have a strong presence in London through our NBC Universal international operations, and we intend to maintain Sky\u2019s UK headquarters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAdding Sky to the Comcast family of businesses will increase our international revenues from 9% to 25% of company revenues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Comcast had previously made efforts to acquire 21st Century Fox itself, but Disney saw off that challenge, and announced its own takeover of Fox last December.<\/p>\n<p>The deal itself is now under review by US competition authorities, and is affected by Fox\u2019s stalling bid for Sky.<\/p>\n<p>Fox first put in a bid for full control of Sky back in December 2016, but the UK\u2019s Competition and Markets Authority has put the breaks on the deal, due to fears that the takeover would give the Murdoch Family Trust too much control over the British media landscape.<\/p>\n<p>Rupert Murdoch has pledged to strengthen Sky News\u2019 independence, and to fund it for ten years, in an effort to appease competition watchdogs. The competition authority itself has said that if Sky News was to be divested or spun off from Sky itself, the takeover might be given the go ahead.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The AdSmart Attraction<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Takeover bids between big players in the TV world are coming thick and fast at a time when traditional broadcasters are facing something of an existential threat from digital competitors. It\u2019s not surprising that Sky is attracting multiple suitors. The company offers a strong presence in the UK, where it\u2019s found in 23 million homes, but perhaps more importantly has established itself as a European leader in addressable TV advertising through its AdSmart product.<\/p>\n<p>Comcast has been pushing into addressable TV advertising in the States. Its subsidiary FreeWheel seeks to enable planning across TV and digital, and allows ads to be targeted on set-top box (STB) video on-demand (VOD) content. Comcast also bought out linear addressable TV specialist Visible World, which has since been folded into FreeWheel. FreeWheel itself is already a heavyweight in the TV ad tech world, so Sky\u2019s addition to this ad tech stack would considerably strengthen Comcast\u2019s already strong ad offering.<\/p>\n<p>The company has shown itself as keen develop its addressable offering further. Comcast Media 360\u2019s SVP Kevin Smith <a href=\"https:\/\/www.comcastspotlight.com\/news\/in-the-news\/addressable-tv-%E2%80%98tactic-%E2%80%99s-evolving%E2%80%99-comcast%E2%80%99s-kevin-smith\">said back in 2016<\/a> that Comcast sees benefits to addressable TV providing more accountability for advertising spending, and that it\u2019s an evolving part of Comcast\u2019s wider strategy. Comcast\u2019s Advanced Advertising Group also announced last year the development of a \u2018Blockchain Insights Platform\u2019, which it hopes will facilitate the secure exchange of audience insights for addressable TV advertising.<\/p>\n<p>Fox has also been experimenting in the addressable TV advertising space. This has partly been in partnership with Comcast, as Fox started delivering targeted ads on VOD content over Comcast STBs last year, as well as in streaming content on Hulu. Fox has also signed up to offer inventory to GroupM\u2019s addressable TV outfit Finecast, though again this is limited to VOD content.<\/p>\n<p>Fox has a proprietary offering too, Fox AIM, which offers data-driven buying on linear TV, though this falls short of what would generally be classed as true addressable TV advertising.<\/p>\n<p>While Fox perhaps has the most to gain from a Sky takeover in terms of bolstering its ad tech offering, Comcast clearly has ambitions to strengthen its European presence, and would itself benefit from Sky\u2019s AdSmart.<\/p>\n<p>Whichever company ends up winning, it may well cost more than Comcast\u2019s current \u00a322 billion bid. Sky\u2019s share price rose to over \u00a313, suggesting that investors anticipate a bidding war between the two to drive up share prices further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US cable giant Comcast has put in a \u00a322.1 billion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":20785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,13,16,5,56,14],"tags":[1484,469,557,4661,1086,5000,3858,4886,775,5001,4806,21],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Comcast Makes \u00a322.1 Billion Bid for Sky - VideoWeek<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Comcast Makes \u00a322.1 Billion Bid for Sky - VideoWeek\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"US cable giant Comcast has put in a \u00a322.1 billion [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"VideoWeek\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/videoadnews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-27T11:44:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/comcast_sky.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tim Cross\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@videoadnews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@videoadnews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tim Cross\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tim Cross\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#\/schema\/person\/06655723adf9aea50c32b050a608cf3f\"},\"headline\":\"Comcast Makes \u00a322.1 Billion Bid for Sky\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-27T11:44:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-27T11:44:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/\"},\"wordCount\":719,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/comcast_sky.png\",\"keywords\":[\"21st Century Fox\",\"Acquisition\",\"Addressable TV Advertising\",\"AdSmart\",\"Comcast\",\"Comcast Sky Takeover\",\"Competition and Markets Authority\",\"Fox\/Sky Takeover\",\"Freewheel\",\"M&amp;A\",\"Rupert Murdoch\",\"Sky\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Ad Tech\",\"Europe\",\"Media\",\"Tech\",\"TV\",\"US\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/\",\"name\":\"Comcast Makes \u00a322.1 Billion Bid for Sky - VideoWeek\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/comcast_sky.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-27T11:44:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-27T11:44:21+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/comcast_sky.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/comcast_sky.png\",\"width\":200,\"height\":200},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/\",\"name\":\"VideoWeek\",\"description\":\"Video &amp; TV Advertising News and Insights\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"VideoWeek\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/videoweek_logo_cropped_long-scaled.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/videoweek_logo_cropped_long-scaled.jpeg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":814,\"caption\":\"VideoWeek\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/videoadnews\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/videoadnews\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#\/schema\/person\/06655723adf9aea50c32b050a608cf3f\",\"name\":\"Tim Cross\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b646b0900d3224b1872c3fe81bc7cf56?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b646b0900d3224b1872c3fe81bc7cf56?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tim Cross\"},\"description\":\"Tim Cross is Assistant Editor at VideoWeek.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/author\/tim\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Comcast Makes \u00a322.1 Billion Bid for Sky - VideoWeek","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Comcast Makes \u00a322.1 Billion Bid for Sky - VideoWeek","og_description":"US cable giant Comcast has put in a \u00a322.1 billion [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/","og_site_name":"VideoWeek","article_publisher":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/videoadnews","article_published_time":"2018-02-27T11:44:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":200,"height":200,"url":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/comcast_sky.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Tim Cross","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@videoadnews","twitter_site":"@videoadnews","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tim Cross","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/"},"author":{"name":"Tim Cross","@id":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#\/schema\/person\/06655723adf9aea50c32b050a608cf3f"},"headline":"Comcast Makes \u00a322.1 Billion Bid for Sky","datePublished":"2018-02-27T11:44:21+00:00","dateModified":"2018-02-27T11:44:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/"},"wordCount":719,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/comcast_sky.png","keywords":["21st Century Fox","Acquisition","Addressable TV Advertising","AdSmart","Comcast","Comcast Sky Takeover","Competition and Markets Authority","Fox\/Sky Takeover","Freewheel","M&amp;A","Rupert Murdoch","Sky"],"articleSection":["Ad Tech","Europe","Media","Tech","TV","US"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/","url":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/","name":"Comcast Makes \u00a322.1 Billion Bid for Sky - VideoWeek","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/comcast_sky.png","datePublished":"2018-02-27T11:44:21+00:00","dateModified":"2018-02-27T11:44:21+00:00","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/2018\/02\/27\/comcast-makes-22-1-billion-bid-for-sky\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/comcast_sky.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/comcast_sky.png","width":200,"height":200},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/","name":"VideoWeek","description":"Video &amp; TV Advertising News and Insights","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#organization","name":"VideoWeek","url":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/videoweek_logo_cropped_long-scaled.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/videoweek_logo_cropped_long-scaled.jpeg","width":2560,"height":814,"caption":"VideoWeek"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/videoadnews","https:\/\/x.com\/videoadnews"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#\/schema\/person\/06655723adf9aea50c32b050a608cf3f","name":"Tim Cross","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b646b0900d3224b1872c3fe81bc7cf56?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b646b0900d3224b1872c3fe81bc7cf56?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tim Cross"},"description":"Tim Cross is Assistant Editor at VideoWeek.","url":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/author\/tim\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20784"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/videoweek.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}