14.8.2014   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 267/27

1.

On 6 August 2014, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which the undertaking Sky Broadcasting Group plc (‘BSkyB’, UK) acquire(s) within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation control of the whole of the undertakings Sky Deutschland AG (‘Sky Deutschland’, Germany) and Sky Italia S.r.l. (‘Sky Italia’, Italy) by way of purchase of shares.

2.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

—   for BSkyB (active in particular in the UK and Ireland): licensing and acquisition of audiovisual programmes, wholesale supply of TV channels, retail distribution of audiovisual programmes, provision of technical platform services, sale of TV advertising airtime and provision of other services such as fixed-line retail telephony and broadband services,

—   for Sky Deutschland (active in particular in Germany): licensing and acquisition of audiovisual programmes, retail distribution of audiovisual programmes in particular in Germany, provision of technical platform services and sale of TV advertising airtime,

—   for Sky Italia (active in particular in Italy): licensing and acquisition of audiovisual programmes, retail distribution of audiovisual programmes in particular in Italy and sale of TV advertising airtime.

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. Observations can be sent to the Commission by fax (+32 22964301), by email to COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu or by post, under reference number M.7332 — BSkyB/Sky Deutschland/Sky Italia, to the following address: