Sky axes Fox News in UK

Sky has announced a decision to cease broadcasting Fox News throughout the UK, after falling audience figures made the channel "not commercially viable".

"Fox News is focused on the US market and designed for a US audience and, accordingly, it averages only a few thousand viewers across the day in the UK," a company spokesperson said.

"We have concluded that it is not in our commercial interest to continue providing Fox News in the UK."

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An unnamed source told the BBC that the decision to axe Fox News in the UK was unrelated to Fox's £11.7bn takeover bid for Sky, currently being investigated by culture secretary Karen Bradley.

Bradley is "set to return her verdict on whether to ask the competition regulator to launch an investigation into the Murdochs' adherence to broadcasting standards in the UK," The Guardian says.

Deputy Labour leader and shadow culture secretary Tom Watson argued the decision was one of expedience for 21st Century Fox, following a string of adverse findings by OfCom.

"Fox News has breached Ofcom's rules over and over again, so 21st Century Fox clearly thought it was easier to pull it from the UK altogether than to clean up its act," Watson said.