On Tuesday, Britain's top competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), provisionally rejected 21st Century Fox's bid to buy 61 percent of satellite broadcaster Sky because it is "not in the public interest." The CMA was looking at two questions — would the proposed merger lower broadcasting standards in Britain and would it give Rupert Murdoch and his family too much control over British media and opinion; it said no to the first question and yes to the second. Sky, owner of Sky News, and Fox will respond to CMA's objections and proposed workarounds, and Culture Secretary Matt Hancock will make the final decision by the middle of May.
Murdoch has been trying for years to purchase full control of Sky, which he launched in the early 1990s, and in December 2016 he made a $16.3 billion offer. But the CMA noted that the Murdoch Family Trust controls news outlets watched or read by nearly a third of the U.K.'s population. "Media plurality goes to the heart of our democratic process," Anne Lambert, chairwoman of the CMA's independent investigation group, told BBC News. "It is very important that no group or individual should have too much control of our news media or too much power to affect the political agenda."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Magazine solutions - April 4, 2025Feature Issue - April 4, 2025
-
Magazine printables - April 4, 2025Feature Issue - April 4, 2025
-
What dangers does the leaked Signal chat expose the US to?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION The White House's ballooning group chat scandal offered a masterclass in what not to say when prying eyes might be watching
-
Tesla Cybertrucks recalled over dislodging panelsSpeed Read Almost every Cybertruck in the US has been recalled over a stainless steel panel that could fall off
-
Crafting emporium Joann is going out of businessSpeed Read The 82-year-old fabric and crafts store will be closing all 800 of its stores
-
Trump's China tariffs start after Canada, Mexico pausesSpeed Read The president paused his tariffs on America's closest neighbors after speaking to their leaders, but his import tax on Chinese goods has taken effect
-
Chinese AI chatbot's rise slams US tech stocksSpeed Read The sudden popularity of a new AI chatbot from Chinese startup DeepSeek has sent U.S. tech stocks tumbling
-
Getty Images and Shutterstock merge into a picture powerhouse to combat AIThe Explainer The $3.7 billion deal is one of the largest in the industry's history
-
US port strike averted with tentative labor dealSpeed Read The strike could have shut down major ports from Texas to Maine
-
Biden expected to block Japanese bid for US SteelSpeed Read The president is blocking the $14 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan's Nippon Steel, citing national security concerns
-
Judges block $25B Kroger-Albertsons mergerSpeed Read The proposed merger between the supermarket giants was stalled when judges overseeing two separate cases blocked the deal
