Sky Plc ditches British tag to expand into Europe

LONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - British Sky Broadcasting (LSE: BSY.L - news) , Rupert Murdoch's pioneering pay-TV company that transformed the country's entertainment market, is to drop the British from its name to reflect its expansion into Europe.

In its new guise, Sky Plc will become Europe's leading entertainment company with 20 million customers in Britain, Italy, Germany, Austria and Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) , with a combined programme budget of 4.6 billion pounds.

Britain's dominant pay-TV provider agreed in June to buy Murdoch's 57 percent stake in Sky Deutschland (Other OTC: SKDTF - news) and all of Sky Italia to bulk up in the face of the toughest market conditions it had endured in 25 years at home.

On Wednesday it completed the deal at a cost of 6.9 billion pounds ($10.90 billion) and revealed it now owned 90 percent of Sky Deutschland, as a larger than expected number of independent investors in Germany signed up for the offer.

The new company will be able to offer premium sports, movies and U.S. drama programming, and bring new services that have proved popular in Britain, to its new wider customer base. It also believes it has the potential to grow further, as more than 60 million households within its footprint are yet to take pay-TV.

"The opportunity ahead is substantial and we believe the new Sky will be good for customers, content creators and shareholders alike," Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch said.

($1 = 0.6330 British pound) (Reporting by Kate Holton, editing by David Evans)