Who Owns Sky?

Sky is owned by Comcast, the American cable and media group, which bought it outright in 2018. Companies House now names Comcast Corporation directly. The register also holds something most people get wrong about Sky: the company trading as Sky today started life not as Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Television but as BSB — the rival satellite broadcaster it merged with in 1990. Ownership verified 6 September 2026.

Who owns Sky?

The group company is SKY LIMITED (02247735), incorporated 25 April 1988 and registered at Grant Way, Isleworth.

Its person with significant control is Sky New Media Ventures Limited (03879726), holding 75% or more since 3 October 2024. Above that, Sky New Media Ventures records Comcast Corporation of the United States (company number 27-0000798) as its own controller, notified 9 October 2024.

So the register does name the ultimate owner — an increasingly rare thing on this site, where trails more often end in a holding company or a statement that nobody is registrable.

Parent company and ownership structure

The structure was rebuilt in a single week in October 2024. Sky New Media Ventures’ PSC history reads:

• Sky UK Limited (02906991) — from 6 April 2016, ceased 1 October 2024
• Sky Limited (02247735) — notified and ceased on 1 October 2024
• Comcast Bidco Limited (11341936) — 1 to 3 October 2024
• Comcast Bidco Holdings Limited (11341628) — 3 to 9 October 2024
• Comcast Corporation — from 9 October 2024

Four changes in nine days, and the effect is an inversion: Sky New Media Ventures had been a subsidiary sitting beneath Sky UK, and came out of that week sitting above Sky Limited, reporting straight to Comcast. The Bidco companies created for the 2018 takeover were unwound in the process.

None of that changed who owns Sky. It is a group reorganisation, and it is a good illustration of why a PSC entry with a recent date is not, by itself, evidence of a sale.

Major shareholders or controlling interests

Sky has no other shareholders. Comcast owns it outright, so there is no minority stake, no consortium and no listed vehicle between the two.

Comcast Corporation itself is listed on NASDAQ and widely held, with index managers among its largest shareholders. The Roberts family, descended from founder Ralph Roberts, retains a special class of stock carrying about a third of the voting power — so Comcast is a listed company with entrenched family voting control, and Sky sits underneath it.

Rupert Murdoch has had no interest in Sky since 2018, despite the association lasting decades in the public mind.

Other media assets in the group

Comcast owns NBCUniversal — NBC, Universal Pictures, Peacock and the Universal theme parks — alongside its US cable business and Sky.

Within Sky sit Sky News, Sky Sports, Sky Cinema, Sky Studios, the Now streaming service and Sky’s businesses in Germany and Italy. Sky News’s editorial independence was a condition attached to the takeover, which is why it is regulated differently from the rest of the group.

Ownership history

The previous names on company 02247735 are the whole story of British satellite television:

• MITNOTES LIMITED — 25 April to 11 August 1988
• BSB LIMITED — to 1 April 1990
• BRITISH SATELLITE BROADCASTING LIMITED — to 19 December 1990
• BRITISH SKY BROADCASTING LIMITED — to 1 July 1994
• BRITISH SKY BROADCASTING GROUP PLC — to 21 November 2014
• SKY PLC — to 19 December 2018

It began as a shelf company called Mitnotes, became BSB, and only took the Sky name in December 1990 — weeks after the two rival broadcasters merged. Sky Television and BSB had been burning money against each other; the company that survives on the register carried BSB’s number, and the Sky name was applied to it.

The 2018 change of ownership followed a contested auction. Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox already held a minority stake and bid for the rest; Comcast bid against it; the Takeover Panel resolved it with a rare blind auction in September 2018, which Comcast won at a price reported above £30bn. Fox sold its stake, and Comcast Bidco Limited was recorded as Sky’s controller on 7 November 2018. The company stopped being a plc on 19 December 2018.

Sources and verification

Every company number, previous name, notification and cessation date above is from the Companies House register and can be checked directly, including the October 2024 sequence and the chain to Comcast Corporation.

The reported £30bn-plus takeover value and the Roberts family’s share of Comcast’s votes come from the auction reporting and Comcast’s US securities filings, not from any UK filing. Be careful with the name British Sky Broadcasting Group Limited: a second, different company (09256967) holds that name today and was itself briefly called Sky Limited in 2014. Names move between companies; numbers do not. Companies House does not verify most filed information.