Murdoch increases bid to buy broadcasting giant

Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox has become the front-runner ahead of rival Comcast, after increasing their bid to buy UK broadcaster Sky.

Fox increased its offer from UK£10.75 per share to UK£14 per share on Wednesday morning, valuing the new deal at UK£24.5 billion (US$32.5 billion).

Fox said it had secured the backing of the independent committee of Sky for the deal, as they already own a 39 per cent stake of the company.

Sky has formed a committee of independent directors to consider the two bids as the broadcaster is chaired by Murdoch’s son James.

Entertainment giant Disney has agreed a US$7 billion takeover of Fox’s entertainment assets and will own all of Sky if Fox wins its bid.

In order to compete with upstarts like Netflix and Amazon, US media giants are forced to battle for media rights in whats left of an ever-changing landscape.

Sky is seen as one of the media industry’s most coveted prizes for US companies looking to expand their operations to Europe.