News Corporation takeover bid for BSkyB the deal, the proposal was referred to Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for culture, media and sport. Hunt initially elected not to refer to the deal to the Competition Commission, announcing on 3 March 2011 that he intended to accept a series of undertakings given by News Corporation, paving the way for the deal to be approved. The undertakings would have led to Sky News being severed from BSkyB. On 23 June it was reported that News Corp had reached an agreement with Ofcom to approve the takeover, on the basis of Sky News becoming a separate company. By
Criticisms of Sky UK accounting for a third of Fleet Street and the BBC – jointly wrote to Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, to lay out their reasons for the BSkyB share bid being a breach of media plurality. The BBC's contribution to the letter was subsequently attacked in a (News International owned) Times editorial. Ofcom complained that Sky's plan to operate pay TV services on Freeview was "generating serious consumer detriment" and the National Consumer Council call Sky's plan "bad news for consumers," combined with representations from BT, Setanta, Top Up TV, and Virgin Media caused Ofcom to launch an investigation into the