The merger of Sky Brasil and DirecTV Brasil has been completed and DirecTV Group Inc. has acquired the interests of News Corp. and Liberty Media in Sky Brasil, DirecTV Group announced Aug. 24.

DirecTV now owns about 74 percent of Sky Brasil, with Globo Comunicacao e Participacoes S.A. holding the remaining 26 percent. DirecTV Group will control day-to-day management of Sky Brasil; Globo will hold minority governance rights and continue in its role as the lead supplier of Brazilian programming to the platform.

DirecTV Brasil’s customers will migrate to the Sky Brasil platform. The two operators have a combined 1.3 million subscribers, making up one-third of all pay TV subscribers in Brazil.

The merger completes a series of separate transactions originally agreed to in October 2004 with News Corp., Globo, Grupo Televisa, S.A. and Liberty Media International, to combine the two direct-to-home platforms of DirecTV Latin America and Sky Latin America into a single platform in each of the major territories served in the region.