Sky has expressed its disappointment after a proposed takeover of the European pay-television operator by media company 21st Century Fox was put on hold by Karen Bradley, the UK’s Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
Bradley said yesterday (Tuesday) that she was “minded” to refer the deal to market regulators over concerns about broadcasting standards, with a delay of at least six months now looking likely before a final decision is made.
Fox, which already owns 39 per cent of Sky, wants to secure full control of the company through an £11.7bn (€13bn/$15.5bn) deal.
With 21st Century Fox expressing its “surprise” at the announcement, the media company added that it was disappointed that Bradley had not followed the advice of UK communications regulator Ofcom, which said in June following a report that the evidence presented did not justify a broadcasting standards investigation.
“As the correspondence between DCMS and Ofcom makes clear, we do not believe that there are grounds for the secretary of state to change her previous position,” Fox said.
Sky, which is a major sports broadcaster across Europe and the primary live rights-holder for football’s English Premier League in the UK, said: “We will continue to engage with the process as the Secretary of State reaches her final decision."
Bradley told the UK’s Parliament yesterday that the existence of “non-fanciful concerns” about compliance procedures at Fox News meant that the legal threshold for broadening the probe into the deal to include broadcasting standards had been satisfied.
“The fact that Fox belatedly established such (compliance) procedures does not ease my concerns, nor does Fox’s compliance history,” Bradley said. “Third parties also raised concerns about what they termed the ‘Foxification’ of Fox-owned news outlets internationally. On the evidence before me, I am not able to conclude that this raises non-fanciful concerns.
“However, I consider it important that entities which adopt controversial or partisan approaches to news and current affairs in other jurisdictions should, at the same time, have a genuine commitment to broadcasting standards here. These are matters the CMA may wish to consider in the event of a referral.”