Fox upgrades Sky News pledges and says Disney could buy news broadcaster

Fox said it would fund an independent Sky News for 15 years, extended from an earlier offer of at least 10 years, if it achieves its aim of buying the 61% of the Sky group it does not own. Fox, controlled by the Murdoch family, also proposed legally separating Sky News from its parent group and offered personal undertakings from the Murdochs not to influence Sky News’s output.

Fox is seeking to buy all of Sky while selling its film and TV operations, including Sky, to Disney. It faces competition for Sky from Comcast, which launched a hostile bid on 27 February, and opposition to its acquisition of Sky News because of concerns about the Murdochs’ influence on the UK media.

In a further development, Fox said Disney had expressed interest in buying Sky News to add to its roster of TV channels whether or not Disney buys Fox.

Fox said Rupert Murdoch and his sons Lachlan and James would personally guarantee not to influence or seek to influence Sky News’s editorial choices.

The Murdochs’ critics say they already wield too much influence in the UK through their ownership of the Sun, Times and Sunday Times newspapers. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating whether Fox’s takeover of Sky is harmful to media plurality and broadcasting standards.

Fox said its proposals went beyond what Ofcom, the UK media regulator, had said was needed to assuage concerns about media plurality and that the Murdochs had never sought to influence Sky News’s editorial direction. It said political opponents of its purchase of Sky had made fanciful assertions that the CMA should reject.

“If the CMA were to accept at face value these assertions and be dissatisfied with enhanced remedies that are a direct and reasonable response to concerns it had raised with us, we believe that this would compromise the integrity of a system which is supposed to be objective, evidenced-based and grounded on the application of established legal principles,” Fox said.

Sky said it believed either Fox's commitments or a sale of Sky News to Disney would address the CMA's concerns and guarantee its long-term future and independence.