UK unlikely to block Comcast’s Sky takeover, official says

LONDON — Britain’s culture secretary said Monday that he was unlikely to block the U.S. cable giant Comcast’s proposed takeover of the British satellite broadcaster Sky, the latest twist in a merger battle between Comcast and Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox.

In a statement, the culture secretary, Matt Hancock, said he was not inclined to intervene in Comcast’s $30.7 billion bid for Sky because “the proposed merger does not raise concerns in relation to public interest considerations which would meet the threshold for intervention.”

Hancock’s remarks came amid a protracted effort by Fox to win full control of Sky, a company in which Murdoch’s company already holds a 39 percent stake.

Fox submitted its current bid for Sky in December 2016, but the company has faced a series of regulatory roadblocks since then.

Hancock is still considering that bid and is expected to make a final decision about it in June.

Comcast and Fox are in something of a bidding war for Sky. Under the terms of its offer, Comcast would pay 12.50 pounds, or about $16.83, a share in cash for each Sky share. Fox has offered 10.75 pounds a share. Sky had originally supported the Fox bid but in April withdrew that recommendation after the Comcast proposal was submitted.

The competing offers by Fox and Comcast highlight the appeal of Sky, which has 23 million subscribers spread across multiple European countries, owns lucrative rights to broadcast English Premier League soccer games and other professional sports matches and has an online streaming service.

For Comcast, the Sky bid offers another benefit: It complicates Fox’s plan to sell most of its businesses to The Walt Disney Co. for $52.4 billion.

Murdoch founded Sky in 1989, and he has long sought to regain control of it.