Move comes as Fox seeks to allay media plurality concerns in £11.7bn takeover of Sky

Rupert Murdoch has pledged not to meddle in editorial decision-making at Sky News but says he will not guarantee funding the service for more than five years, as 21st Century Fox seeks clearance for its £11.7bn takeover of Sky.

The Competition and Markets Authority said in its provisional findings last month that Murdoch’s bid raised media plurality concerns because the deal would give his family too much control over UK news media. The Murdoch family trust controls Fox and News Corp, publisher of the Sun and the Times.

Fox has beefed up the so-called “firewall” remedies it had already tabled, including “establishing a fully independent, expert Sky News editorial board”. This would be made up of two existing independent directors of Sky and a third member nominated by the Sky independent directors who would have “senior editorial and/or journalistic experience”.

Fox has also pledged that no Fox employee or board member who was a trustee or beneficiary of the Murdoch family trust “will influence or attempt to influence the editorial choices made by the head of Sky News”.

This would include the selection or running of news stories and political comment and opinion.

Fox did not increase its original offer of guaranteeing to fund Sky News for a minimum of five years, a move the media regulator Ofcom indicated might help the Murdochs get deal clearance. When the Murdochs tried to buy Sky in 2011 a 10-year funding guarantee was accepted by the then minister in charge, Jeremy Hunt, as part of a package of guarantees strong enough to allay media plurality issues.

Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s chief executive, cast doubt on the future of Sky News saying that the service was no longer critical to the pay-TV broadcaster. 

Sky has previously said that it could close Sky News if the Fox deal was blocked, a move that would eliminate the media plurality issue at a stroke.

Fox did not submit any responses to the CMA’s consultation on other options for Sky News, including a full sale or spin-off.

“The provisional findings contain a number of material legal and factual errors,” said Fox. “The aggregate effect of these errors is that the provisional findings do not provide a reasonable basis on which to conclude that the transaction may be expected to operate against the public interest in respect of the media plurality.”