Competition watchdog: Fox

Rupert
Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corporation, reacts during a
panel discussion at the B20 meeting of company CEOs in Sydney,
July 17, 2014. The B20 was set up in 2010 to give policy
recommendations on behalf of the international business community
to the G20 member countries.
REUTERS/Jason Reed

• 
  21st Century Fox announced plans to take over Sky in
  2016. The deal was referred to the UK Competition and Markets
  Authority (CMA) last September.
  


• 
  CMA said Tuesday the deal is "against the public
  interest" as it would give the Murdoch family too much control
  over UK media.
  

---

LONDON — The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has
raised concerns about Sky's planned takeover by 21st Century Fox,
saying the deal would give media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his
family too much control over the UK news media.

The CMA
said in a statement on Tuesday that it believes the deal
would be "against the public interest" because there needs to "be
a sufficient plurality of persons with control of the media."
Rupert Murdoch is a majority shareholder of both Sky and 21st
Century Fox and a merger would centralise his control.

The watchdog is concerned that the deal could "reduce the
diversity of viewpoints available to and consumed by members of
the public."

"The specific concern is that the Transaction might reduce the
independence of Sky’s news and current affairs content on Sky
News, and this, in turn, could lead to a reduction in the
diversity of viewpoints across the news and current affairs
offerings operated by the media 6 enterprises controlled by the
MFT [Murdoch Family Trust], including Sky News, The Sun, The Sun
on Sunday, The Times, and The Sunday Times," the CMA wrote.

"The Transaction might make it more likely that Sky News and the
newspapers owned by News Corp could take a similar approach on
specific topics or issues, push certain stories, or downplay
others. These concerns do not rely on full editorial alignment,
but rather the potential for increased editorial alignment."

Fox is already a minority shareholder of Sky and the US company
announced plans for a full takeover in December 2016. The
deal was referred to the CMA in September last year for review.
Sky has
already threatened to close down Sky News to force through the
merger.

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