This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

An investigation by the UK media regulator into Rupert Murdoch’s £11.7bn takeover of Sky has been delayed until after the general election.

Karen Bradley, the culture secretary, was set to receive the findings of two Ofcom investigations, examining whether the takeover gives Murdoch too much control of UK news media and whether he is a “fit and proper” owner, by 16 May.



Theresa May’s decision to call a snap general election on 8 June means the deadline has now been extended to 20 June.



Ofcom could decide that 100% of Sky is the limit for Murdoch Read more

Under government rules governing “purdah” – the period immediately before elections, which in this case is due to start at midnight on 21 April – Bradley is not allowed to make a decision on the report.



“Given the proximity of this decision to the forthcoming general election and following discussions with the parties, Ofcom, the Competition and Markets Authority and the Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team I wrote to Ofcom and the CMA on Friday 21 April to extend the period by which these reports should be submitted to Tuesday 20 June,” said Bradley.



According to the Cabinet Office’s guidance to ministers and civil servants, “large and/or contentious [decisions] on which a new government might be expected to want the opportunity to take a different view from the present government, should be postponed until after the election”.



After Bradley receives Ofcom’s report she will have to decide whether to refer 21st Century Fox’s bid to takeover the 61% of Sky it does not already own to the competition authorities for further scrutiny.



During Murdoch’s previous bid in 2010, which was scrapped because of the fallout from the phone-hacking scandal that engulfed his UK newspapers, the then culture secretary Jeremy Hunt accepted an offer to spin off Sky News to allay the media plurality issues Ofcom raised.



This time round James Murdoch, the chief executive of Fox and chairman of Sky, has said that he does not believe that the company will need to make any meaningful concessions to complete the takeover.



Critics say that the bid raises plurality issues because it will give Fox News owner Murdoch control of Sky, which owns Sky News, operations in Germany and Italy and UK newspapers including the Sun and Times.

The UK newspapers are owned through News Corp, a separate company which was set up after the previous bid was aborted as the home of Murdoch’s global newspaper and publishing assets.

Opponents also say that the phone-hacking scandal – and more recent revelations about impropriety at Fox News that resulted in the departure of its top executive Roger Ailes and separately the broadcaster Bill O’Reilly – mean that Fox is not “fit and proper” to own a UK broadcasting licence for Sky.



“With scandal engulfing Fox in the US and the history of phone hacking in Britain, the government knows the Murdoch brand is politically toxic,” said Bert Wander, director at campaigning group Avaaz. “Ofcom should use the extra time to consider new evidence of why the Murdochs are not fit to own Sky.”

Murdoch’s £11.7bn bid was cleared by the European competition regulator earlier this month.



“We are confident that a thorough review of our track record over 30 years will underscore our commitment to upholding high broadcast standards, and will demonstrate that the transaction will not result in there being insufficient plurality in the UK,” a spokeswoman for Fox said.