Page "Sky News" Paragraph 11

Jeremy Hunt-the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport-announced on 3 March 2011 that under News Corporation's proposal to take full control of BSkyB, Sky News would be " spun off " into a separate company.

As part of a series of undertakings, the company's chairman and a majority of the board of directors would be required to be independent, but News Corp would continue to hold a 39. 1 per cent stake in the new company.

However, that concession was withdrawn in the wake of the News of the World phone hacking affair, allowing the U. K. government to contest the merger on competition grounds, instead of whether News Corp. would be a " fit and proper " owner for BSkyB.

Withdrawing the concession was " probably the ( lesser ) of the bad options " for News Corp., said Louise Cooper, markets analyst for London-based BGC Partners.