A development on the BSkyB (NYSE: BSY)/ITV (LSE: ITV) story of last week, in which the Competition Commission ruled that the satellite company BSkyB may be restricting competition in areas like digital development through its 17.9 percent holding in the commercial broadcaster. Apparently BSkyB, 39.1 percent owned by News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), had originally tried to bring in an un-named private equity concern to jointly buy up the £940 million ($1.9 billion) share in ITV; the PE pulled out at the last minute and so BSkyB went in on its own. A report in the Guardian says this implies BSkyB might have been buying the 17.9 percent stake in ITV as an investment—always BSkyB’s claim—rather than as a blocking measure against pay-TV rival Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED), who was attempting to make an unsolicited bid to buy and merge ITV with its cable operation. Since buying the stake, BSkyB has lost more than £200 million ($407 million) as ITV’s shares have dropped. 

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