Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to take account of Comcast’s existing interests in news outlets in the UK, its reciprocal arrangement with ITN, the distribution of CNBC and its significant equity interests in Euronews, Buzzfeed and Vox Media when assessing the effect of its bid for Sky on media plurality in the UK.

The Secretary of State has powers to intervene in certain transactions involving media enterprises when any of the considerations specified in the Enterprise Act 2002 are relevant. The decision to intervene is quasi-judicial and must be taken independently based on all relevant evidence available. Any transaction will be looked at on its merits, on a case-by-case basis. Due to the quasi-judicial nature of the decision, it would be inappropriate to comment further in relation to any specific transaction.