Process update on the Secretary of State’s consideration of the proposed merger between 21st Century Fox Inc. and Sky Plc.
Process update, 8 August 2017.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has written to Ofcom under section 106B(2) of the Enterprise Act 2002, seeking further clarification in relation to representations made on the Secretary of State’s referral decision.
After assessing the large number of representations made in relation to the Secretary of State’s referral decision, a number of these raise new evidence and/or comment on the Ofcom assessment.
Any referral decision by the Secretary of State must be taken on the basis of a valid assessment of all the relevant evidence. For this reason the DCMS has asked Ofcom to advise on a number of points arising from these representations. The Department has asked that the advice is provided as soon as possible and no later than 25 August 2017.
All effort continues to carry out this process in a transparent and timely way. The Department’s letter to Ofcom and Ofcom’s response will be published in due course.