Culture secretary Karen Bradley has announced she is “minded to” refer 21st Century Fox’s bid to buy the rest of Sky to the Competition Markets Authority (CMA) for a full investigation.
If Bradley refers the bid to the CMA, it will have six months to investigate the impact a complete takeover would have on the plurality of the UK’s media landscape - but not whether Fox is deemed to be a ‘fit and proper’ owner.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Bradley said that early reports from the CMA and telecoms regulator Ofcom raise questions about the public interest about the influence the Murdoch family trust would have on the British media landscape, but repeatedly added that today’s ruling is based on “the evidence before [her]” and that are “not [her] final decisions.”
Media giant Fox already owns 39.1 per cent of Sky and wants to buy the remaining shares in the company for £11.7 billion. Fox has received regulatory approval in Germany, Austria, Italy and Ireland - the other European countries where Sky has a presence - and the UK is the last territory to greenlight the takeover.
News Corporation attempted to buy the remaining Sky shares in 2010, but that bid was withdrawn partially due to the voicemail hacking scandal, which eventually led to Rupert Murdoch splitting News Corporation into two new entities; 21st Century Fox - which owns film studio and TV broadcasters - and a new News Corp, which owns newspapers.
Relevant parties will have until Friday the 14th of July to make a statement on the culture secretary’s findings.