Mar 8, 2017

Fox hits back at Bradley’s critique of Sky deal

21st Century Fox has hit back at the UK's culture secretary Karen Bradley after she announced last week she was "Minded to intervene" in the Murdoch family group's £11.7bn takeover bid for Sky. In a surprise move Ms Bradley's officials also raised the past conduct of Fox chief executive and Sky chairman James Murdoch when he was in charge of News Corp's UK newspaper titles during the 2011 phone-hacking scandal. In its 2010/11 pursuit of Sky, News Corp said it could spin off Sky News to address concerns over plurality. In a separate briefing document prepared by Fox's lawyers Allen & Overy, which was also published on Wednesday afternoon, the media group said the subsequent separation of Fox and News Corp meant there would be "No cross media" overlap between the newspapers and Sky News. On the question of broadcasting standards, Mr Palker argues the government has been "Simplistic" by referring to the number of previous UK broadcasting code infringements committed by Sky and Fox, calling these "At best irrelevant and uninformative".

Read the full story

 Related companies

Make a complaint about Sky by viewing their customer service contacts.