BSkyB is to scrap the word "British" from its branding after almost 25 years "as the company completes an ambitious transformation into a pan-European pay TV giant" following the £6.88B ($10.8B) buyout of its sister companies in Germany and Italy, according to Mark Sweney of the London GUARDIAN. The enlarged company "will revert to the Sky name" that Rupert Murdoch used when launching into the U.K. pay-TV market at the end of the '80s. BSkyB announced the name change on Thursday, "although it will need to be rubber-stamped by shareholders at the company’s AGM" on Nov. 21. The word “Broadcasting” is also being dropped to reflect the company’s evolution beyond TV into a multimedia content company. The completion of the buy-out of Sky’s sister companies "will see Murdoch achieve a long held ambition of creating a pan-European pay-TV giant" with more than £11B ($17B) in revenues and 20 million customers in the U.K., Germany, Italy, Austria and Ireland (GUARDIAN, 11/12). CITY AM's Lynsey Barber wrote Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch "will lead the combined group" as group CEO in addition to leading the business in the U.K. and Ireland. U.K. finance boss Andrew Griffiths "will also step up to lead the group’s finances." The businesses in Italy and Germany "will continue to be led by their respective chiefs," Andrea Zappia and Brian Sullivan (CITY AM, 11/13).
