BSkyB's ownership of a 17.9 per cent stake in broadcaster ITV restricts competition and operates against the public interest, provisional findings from the Competition Commission said yesterday.
The group now faces the prospect of having to sell part of its stake, which it acquired for £940m last November.
The final decision on what action should be taken will be taken by Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Secretary John Hutton.
The group's surprise move to snap up the ITV shares caused controversy by scuppering Virgin Media's ITV merger plans, drawing fire from major Virgin Media shareholder Sir Richard Branson.
The commission will now consult on possible remedies to address the public interest finding, including divestment of the shareholding. BSkyB's last annual report placed a value of £795m on the shares.
Commission chairman Peter Freeman said: ''The acquisition has made BSkyB ITV's largest shareholder by some margin and, while our provisional view is that this would not necessarily affect day-to-day operations, BSkyB would be able to influence ITV's key strategic decisions, particularly relating to investment, whether in content, capacity or new technology.
BSkyB has described its ITV stake as for investment purposes.
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