James Murdoch, the chief executive of 21st Century Fox, has suggested that the media company will bid to acquire complete control of pan-European pay-television broadcaster Sky, a major broadcaster of sports coverage.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter news service, Murdoch said that 21st Century Fox would not settle for being a partial shareholder in the company.
The media company has a 39-per-cent stake in Sky, which completed acquisitions of sister operators Sky Deutschland in Germany and Sky Italia in Italy.
“The Sky businesses, we’ve only just brought them all together into one big European platform,” he said. “That integration is going really well. The company is moving at a very fast pace and has grown in value enormously. We’ve also been clear that over time, having 40 per cent of an unconsolidated asset is not an end state that is natural for us.”
However, Murdoch played down suggestions of an imminent move for full control of Sky, which holds the UK broadcasting rights to the majority of English Premier League games.
“Right now, we’re 100-per-cent focused on supporting the company to get this integration going and get it done for the business to move forward, so there are no plans on the agenda right now,” he said.