1998:Film critic Barry Norman with the then Sky TV's General Manager Elisabeth Murdoch for the launch of three new channels for Sky Movies.Peter Jordan/Press Association. All rights reserved. For those people passionately opposed to Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, the statement from Karen Bradley last Thursday would have aroused mixed emotions. One of the companies in which the Murdoch Family Trust (MFT) holds a controlling 39% interest – the US-based 21st Century Fox, hereafter “Fox” – is trying to buy all of Sky plc, in which Fox itself already holds a controlling 39% share.
After a 10-week review by the media regulator, Ofcom, Bradley was advised that there were presently no grounds for barring the transaction for reasons to do with commitment to broadcasting quality and upholding Ofcom standards: the “fit and proper test” had been passed. Anyone who thought that the still-running phone-hacking scandal or the recent reports of sexual harassment at Fox News in America might derail the bid, would have been disappointed.
If so, they had misunderstood the “fit and proper” assessment process: this is continuous, and not confined to the period when a transaction is in process. If Fox had been vulnerable on that front, it would have lost its licences already – and that would have been all 54 of Sky’s Ofcom licences, not just that for Sky News. So tremendous an upheaval would have required long-term and persistent breaches of the broadcasting code and Ofcom licence conditions, with removal of licences only happening after clear public warnings.
