BHP Billiton PLC Share News (BLT)

* FTSE 100 up 1.1 pct

* Miners drop ahead of Fed rate decision

* Standard Life falls after downgrade (ADVISORY- Follow European and UK stock markets in real time onthe Reuters Live Markets blog on Eikon, see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets)

By Alistair Smout and Kit Rees

LONDON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index onTuesday posted its highest closing level since October, buoyedby gains for television and telecom stocks following an uptickof M&A activity in the sector.

The blue chip FTSE 100 index was up 1.1 percent at6,968.57 points by the close, mirroring gains in the broaderEuropean market.

Gains were broad-based, with only the mining and materialssector in negative territory ahead of the results of the U.S.Federal Reserve's meeting on Wednesday.

The FTSE 100 posted its highest close since October, andrecouped all of the previous session's 0.9 percent loss.

Sky rose 1.7 percent to 988.5 pence following a dipin the previous session, but still traded below Twenty-FirstCentury Fox Inc's 1,075p per share offer for the firm,which sent shares surging last Friday.

British public sector pension funds were the latest to castscepticism on the deal, calling for an "appropriate" premium forshareholders and calling for regulatory scrutiny of any deal.

Shares in broadcaster ITV rose 3.7 percent, with onetrader saying the Fox bid for Sky made other M&A in the sectormore likely.

"ITV is... higher on the back of speculation that it maybecome the subject of a bid in the wake of 21st Century Fox'sbid for Sky," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMCMarkets.

BT, which increasingly competes with Sky in internetprovision and televised football, rose 3.7 percent.

Elsewhere in Europe, French media group Vivendi said it had raised its stake in Italy's Mediaset,fuelling the prospects of a hostile takeover bid.

Top FTSE 100 riser was engine-maker Rolls Royce, up4.2 percent and recovering from a fall on Monday followingnegative readacross from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump'scriticism of the costs of Lockheed Martin's F-35 fight jetprogramme.

Top fallers were miners. A drop in the price of copper hitshares in Antofagasta, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Glencore, which fell between 2 to 4.6percent.

Commodity prices tend to come under pressure when realinterest rates rise as investors put capital intohigher-yielding assets.

"They've had quite a strong run, the miners, of late so ifwe see a strengthening dollar and a weakening commodity price inthe face of a rate hike, that's going to be slightly negativefor the miners in the short-term," said Jonathan Roy, advisoryinvestment manager at Charles Hanover Investments.

Among mid caps, digital payment provider Paysafe fell 17.6 percent after a blog post alleging that the companywas enabling illegal gambling in China, which the firm denied.

Cyber security firm NCC Group fell 10 percent afterthe firm cut its 2017 earnings forecast, with analysts atJefferies pointing to project cancellations as impactingprofitability. (Editing by Gareth Jones)