Prior notification of a concentration (Case M.8861 — Comcast/Sky) (Text with EEA relevance. )
Date: 2018-05-17
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: advertising, economic concentration, holding company, merger control, mobile communication, television








C_2018170EN.01000901.xml










17.5.2018   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 170/9





Prior notification of a concentration
(Case M.8861 — Comcast/Sky)
(Text with EEA relevance)
(2018/C 170/07)






1.


On 7 May 2018, the Commission received notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1).
This notification concerns the following undertakings:






—


Comcast Corporation (United States), and










—


Sky plc (United Kingdom).




Comcast Corporation acquires within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation sole control of the whole of Sky plc.
The concentration is accomplished by way of public bid announced on 25 April 2018.










2.


The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:
—   for Comcast Corporation: Comcast is a US listed global media, technology and entertainment company, with two primary businesses: Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal (‘NBCU’). Comcast is present in Europe almost entirely through NBCU, which is active in Europe in: (i) production, sales and distribution of film and television content; (ii) wholesale supply of TV channels and on-demand services; (iii) CNBC, a business news service, as well as NBC News; (iv) the provision of television content to end-users through NBCU’s video-on- demand service; (v) the licensing of its intellectual property to manufacturers and distributors of consumer products; (vi) minor golf-related digital businesses; and (vii) minor direct-to-consumer DVD and Blu-ray, SteelBooks and music disk sales,
—   for Sky plc: Sky is a UK public company whose shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange. Sky is the holding company of a number of subsidiaries carrying on business in a variety of sectors predominantly in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Italy, including: (i) licensing/acquisition of audiovisual programming; (ii) TV channel wholesale supply in the UK and Ireland; (iii) retailing of audiovisual programming to subscribers; (iv) provision of technical platform services to broadcasters on Sky’s DTH platforms in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Austria; (v) sale of TV advertising; (vi) in the UK and Ireland, the provision of fixed-line retail telephony and broadband services; (vii) in the UK, the provision of mobile communications services; and (viii) in the UK, provision of access to public Wi-Fi hotspots.










3.


On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the Merger Regulation. However, the final decision on this point is reserved.










4.


The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.
Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. The following reference should always be specified:
M.8861 — Comcast/Sky
Observations can be sent to the Commission by email, by fax, or by post. Please use the contact details below:





Email: COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu




Fax +32 22964301




Postal address:




European Commission




Directorate-General for Competition




Merger Registry




1049 Bruxelles/Brussel




BELGIQUE/BELGIË










(1)  OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1 (the ‘Merger Regulation’).