Rupert Murdoch’s proposed takeover of Sky has met with further delays after the government asked the media regulator to conduct further analysis of the mogul and his company’s adherence to broadcasting standards.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport made the intervention after the government and Ofcom faced calls to deepen their investigation into the Murdoch family’s suitability to buy Sky because of allegations that Fox News had colluded with the White House on a story that contained fabricated quotes.

The US corporation 21st Century Fox, which is controlled by Murdoch and his sons, Lachlan and James, wants to buy the 61% of Sky it does not already own in an £11.7bn deal.

On Tuesday the DCMS said it had received submissions that raise “new evidence and/or comment” about Ofcom’s assessment of the takeover and was “seeking further clarification” from the regulator.

The department has asked Ofcom to respond by 25 August, meaning that the government is almost certain not to announce a final decision on whether to refer the deal to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) until parliament returns from summer recess in September.



The Murdochs have already expressed concerns about delays to the regulatory process and tried to speed it up by not submitting an improved offer to allay the concerns of the government. An improved offer would have required further behind-the-scenes negotiation. Shares in Sky fell by almost 5p to 963.54p after the DCMS announcement and are now close to their lowest levels since the Murdochs’ takeover bid emerged last December.



It is understood that Ofcom has been asked for its comments on a range of broadcasting standards issues, and not that one particular piece of evidence has transformed the government’s view of the deal.

The submissions to the DCMS included the threat of legal action from a group of high-profile MPs including the former Labour leader and longtime Murdoch critic Ed Miliband, and Avaaz, the campaign group, if the government did not ask the CMA for a full investigation into the deal on the grounds of broadcasting standards. The MPs and Avaaz have criticised Ofcom for advising the government not to launch a broadcasting standards investigation despite a sexual harassment scandal at Fox News and the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World.

On Monday the MPs published a new letter they had sent to Bradley which said that the allegations that Fox News had colluded with the White House on a story that turned out to be false – which the company denies – suggested a “brazen disregard for the ethics of journalism” and showed that new compliance procedures at the company had “failed dismally”.

The MPs said there were grounds to launch a judicial review against Ofcom because the regulator had used an incorrectly high legal threshold when judging whether the deal should face a detailed investigation into broadcasting standards.

Karen Bradley, the culture secretary, has already said that she was minded to refer the deal to the CMA on the grounds of media plurality, pointing to concerns raised by Ofcom in a report about the proposed takeover. Bradley said last month she had received “tens of thousands of representations” since she announced her initial views at the end of June.

But the question of broadcasting standards remains open after her intervention; it had been thought that Bradley would not make a reference on these grounds.

A separate report by Ofcom cleared the Murdochs as “fit and proper” owners of Sky and this is not thought to be under scrutiny in the government’s latest intervention because it is a matter for the regulator.

In its statement on Tuesday, the DCMS said: “After assessing the large number of representations made in relation to the secretary of state’s referral decision, a number of these raise new evidence and/or comment on the Ofcom assessment. Any referral decision by the secretary of state must be taken on the basis of a valid assessment of all the relevant evidence. For this reason the DCMS has asked Ofcom to advise on a number of points arising from these representations.”

An Ofcom spokesperson said the regulator had received the DCMS request and would respond before 25 August.

Alaphia Zoyab, a senior campaigner at Avaaz, said: “Ofcom took a ‘see no evil, hear no evil’ approach to investigating the Murdochs and their fake news factory Fox News. Under pressure from Avaaz and others, Secretary Bradley is beginning to see just how flawed that approach was. She should push for a deeper probe, and she knows that if she doesn’t, a legal challenge is possible.”