Red tape ahead for Fox, Sky bid

Some British politicians are calling for 21^st Century Fox’s bid for Sky to be blocked – and not just delayed, but completely thrown out.

Former Labour party leader Ed Milliband and senior Liberal Democrat figure Vince Cable (a former UK business minister in the Cameron government) are saying that little has changed since a 2012 Ofcom regulator’s report into the role of James Murdoch in the now notorious phone ‘hacking’ scandal.

The Ofcom report – in the worlds of Cable – was “withering about Murdoch’s conduct” in the News Corp scandal.

In a jointly-signed article in the left-leaning Observer newspaper, the politicians said “The question as to whether 100 per cent ownership is right now when it was not four years ago can be answered emphatically: no.”

The pair are calling for a full re-investigation by Ofcom into the now-agreed Fox move on Sky.

UK media and culture secretary of state Karen Bradley is likely to decide whether to conduct a ‘public intervention notice’, but only once the European Commission has been officially notified that a bid is in process.