[Stooky Bill]

I'm fairly certain that TUPE wouldn't have been valid for the merger. It doesn't apply to takeovers using share capital for example. However there is another reason. Why? Well let's have a look at Companies House records for the companies

Both the original BSB company and the original 1980 Sky TV company are still active and trading. And it turns out the merger didn't happen as people think it did. 


This is Sky Limited, what was until a few years ago Sky Plc, and before that BSkyB Plc, and before that British Satellite Broadcasting or BSB.  As you can see from the recent filings it's worth £872 million, so it's the Sky we all know 

find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk 

So the current Sky is actually the original BSB, and of you look down to the long document filed on 11 Dec 1990 you can see why (not sure if this link will work) 
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk 

This is the merger deal between BSB and Sky, and shows that BSB were the purchaser of Sky Television. Officially BSB bought Sky from News International and in return News International got 50% of the shares of BSB, which was then renamed British Sky Broadcasting. 

The ownership of BSB became 50% News International with the original shareholders of BSB making up the other 50%, hence how News Int had majority control over the new company 

The original Sky Television, founded in 1980 which was the company that BSB bought in 1990 is still in existamce as a subsidiary of Sky Limited 
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk 

The interesting thing in this context is looking at their accounts from 1993 Sky Television they ran 3 channels: Sky One, Sky News and Sky Movies Plus 
     

So post merger the two companies continued as seperate, one - BSkyB was the former BSB and was the main company, and Sky Television that operated the original Sky channels (minus Eurosport which they had to sell). 

Therefore none (well very few) of the staff changed companies, they all stayed contracted to either Sky TV or BSkyB.

Of course in the resulting rejigging and reorganisation a lot of mostly BSB staff would have been made redundant as surplus to requirements with the merger. After time presumably the original 3 Sky channels and everything else became integrated into the BSkyB (now Sky Ltd) company.


Lots of interesting stuff in the company reports. The merger document is 93 pages and goes into full detail of the deal, signed off by Rupert Murdoch etc. The pre merger accounts of Sky Television show how much they were losing