BSkyB, the satellite broadcaster which is 36.8% owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, is poised to raise £1bn (€1.5bn) through its first bond offering in more than six years and its largest deal on record.

Barclays Capital and JP Morgan will arrange their first bond for BSkyB, alongside Citigroup. Salomon Smith Barney, now part of Citigroup, shared the books on BSkyB's first bond, a $600m (€497m) benchmark global deal in February 1999.