Get the DealBook newsletter to make sense of major business and policy headlines — and the power-brokers who shape them.

__________

Twenty-First Century Fox finally got clearance on Thursday from Britain’s culture secretary to pursue its takeover of Sky, after 18 months of trying. The decision came hours after Comcast seized the lead in the bidding for the European satellite broadcaster by offering £14.75 a share.

Yet it’s a different British regulator, the country’s Takeover Panel, which may have made Sky — and not Fox itself, which has drawn takeover bids from the Walt Disney Company and Comcast to expand their media empires — the center of the biggest media takeover battle today. But it could also lead to a peaceful compromise.

To understand how the British takeover rules are having an effect, let’s first set out some context:

■ Fox already owns a 39 percent stake in Sky.

■ In late 2016, Fox initially bid £10.75 a share for the 61 percent of Sky that it didn’t own. Comcast later bid £12.50.