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BSkyB to buy Sky Italia

British satellite television group BSkyB said on Friday it had agreed multi-billion-dollar deals with Rupert Murdoch's media empire 21st Century Fox to create a pan-European pay-TV giant.

BSkyB to buy Sky Italia
Photo: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP

This latest shake-up in the sector is seen as a bid by the media mogul to strengthen his European television operations as the telecommunications sector enters the market to screen live football matches featuring some the world's biggest clubs.

BSkyB has agreed to buy 21st Century Fox's 100-percent stake in Sky Italia and its 57.4-percent interest in Sky Deutschland, a statement said. Murdoch's 21st Century Fox media conglomerate currently owns 39 percent of BSkyB.

BSkyB said it planned to acquire the rest of Sky Deutschland from the German group's minority shareholders, creating a pan-European TV giant in deals costing the British group a total of up to £7.0 billion (€8.8 billion) in cash.

"The enlarged company will be a world-class multinational pay TV provider that serves 20 million customers and brings together the leading pay TV businesses in three of Europe's four biggest markets," BSkyB said in the statement.

As part of the tie-up, BSkyB said it would transfer its minority stake in National Geographic Channel to 21st Century Fox at a value of £382 million. 

"By creating the new Sky, we will be able to use our collective strengths and expertise to serve customers better, grow faster and enhance returns," BSkyB chief executive Jeremy Darroch said in Friday's statement.

BSkyB is facing intense competition from British telecoms firm BT, which launched its own pay-TV sports channels last year showing English Premier League football.

And BT outgunned BSkyB last November to secure exclusive rights to televise across Britain all of Europe's Champions League and Europa League football matches for three seasons from 2015.

Earlier this year, British mobile phone group Vodafone bought Spanish cable giant Ono for €7.2 billion, having already snapped up Kabel Deutschland, the largest cable operator in Germany, for €7.7 billion in 2013.

US giant Liberty Global took over its British rival Virgin Media last year in a deal worth $23.3 billion.

READ MORE: TV group BSkyB in talks to buy Sky Italia stake

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Villages across Swiss Alps set to fight proposed base jumping ban

A proposal to ban base jumping in the Bernese Highlands has drawn criticism, with locals countering claims that the extreme sport is dangerous.

Villages across Swiss Alps set to fight proposed base jumping ban
Photo: Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP

Kiener Nellen, a National Councillor in Bern, has instructed the Federal Council to consider a nationwide ban on the practice. 

Nellen said that the dangerous sport was harmful to Switzerland’s reputation, while also putting local rescue staff at risk. 

Nellen told the Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen broadcasting company that base jumping ”endangers the reputation of Switzerland’s tourism industry and the Bernese Highlands”. 

An average of 4.5 deaths per year

More and more base jumps take place in Switzerland every year, with more than 30,000 completed in 2018.

While base jumping is becoming a more established practice, it remains unsafe. 

READ: British base jumper dies in Lauterbrunnen

Four people died base jumping in 2017 in Switzerland, down from nine in 2016 and ten in 2015. A total of 81 people have died in Switzerland since 2002, an average of 4.5 per year. 

'Not thoughtless weirdos'

Several have spoken out against the ban, arguing that the practice is becoming safer – and that it is crucial to the local economy. 

Aside from the money spent by the base jumpers when they stay in Switzerland, they are also required to buy a ‘Landing Card’. 

The money from these cards is paid back to local farmers who offer their properties as landing pads and began as an initiative of the base jumpers themselves. 

Base jumping. Michael Mathes / AFP

Annette Weber, who works at a cafe in the Bernese Highlands, told Swiss online newspaper Watson that the stereotype of irresponsible, risk-taking base jumpers was not accurate. 

“They’re not half-wild weirdos who throw themselves thoughtlessly off the cliffs,” she said. 

“It would be totally ridiculous to criminalize base jumping.” 

Lauterbrunnen Mayor Martin Stäger (SVP) agreed, saying that a ban would be not be effective. 

“The base jumpers mostly stick to the rules in our valley,” he said. 

“A ban would be completely counterproductive. How can such a ban be controlled?

“Then people would just jump at the unofficial, more dangerous places.”

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