Fox offers to sell Sky News to Disney in takeover bid

Sky News would be sold off to Walt Disney or ringfenced under improved concessions put forward by Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox as part of its efforts to seize full control of broadcaster Sky.

Fox, which is attempting to buy the 61 per cent of Sky it does not already own, faces a number of regulatory hurdles after the UK’S competition watchdog found the £11.7 billion deal was“not in the public interest ”.

It has now proposed either a legal separation and comprehensive ringfencing of Sky News or a sale of the loss-making channel to Walt Disney, which is itself attempting to acquire Fox’s entertainment assets.

The sale of Sky News to Disney would take place “whether or not Disney’s proposed acquisition of 21st Century Fox proceeds”, Fox said yesterday.

It comes as the Competition and Markets Authority weighs up whether to recommend Fox’s deal for Sky to Culture Secretary Matt Hancock, who must decide to either approve or block it.