Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox pledged to keep Sky News independent and continue funding the loss-making channel for five years, in an attempt to overcome regulatory concerns over its $15.7 billion takeover of pay-TV firm Sky.
According to Reuters, Fox said it would establish a fully independent board for the news channel to ensure the 86-year-old media mogul and his family could not influence its output.
Britain’s competition regulator said last month that Fox’s deal to buy the 61 percent of Sky it does not already own should be blocked unless a way was found to reduce the influence Murdoch could wield through owning the Sun and the Times newspapers, as well as TV, radio and online news outlets.
Some lawyers, investors and analysts have said that a stronger mechanism to guarantee the independence of Sky News should be enough to gain approval.
Looming over the Fox-Sky takeover is a $52.4 billion deal that would result in Walt Disney Co buying Fox’s TV and film studios, its cable TV assets and international TV businesses including Sky - leaving the Murdochs with Fox’s U.S news and sports channels, as well as their News Corp newspaper and publishing assets.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had already said the Disney deal should be taken into consideration when any remedies are assessed.
Fox, which disputes the CMA’s finding on the media power it would have if it owned Sky, said any concerns about the Murdoch influence would fall away after a Disney takeover.
The regulator had said the output of Murdoch’s companies would be watched, read or heard by nearly a third of the British population, giving him too much sway over public opinion.
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