Major Murdoch Takeover Delayed in U.K.
QUEST: Fox's $11.7 billion Sky takeover likely to face full competition investigation. Not the sort of headline that Rupert Murdoch wanted. But the sort he got today. After the culture secretary warns the deal could give the Murdoch family too much influence over British politics. Join me if you will. Let's go into Rupert Murdoch's living room. Now, as you can see, very nice to see all, most of the family are there in the pictures. The vast global media empire. And wherever we look Rupert Murdoch can enjoy his own journals and media. In New York there's "The Wall Street Journal," which will give him a bit of indigestion, he owns it, Jerry Baker is the editor in chief there. And you've got "The New York Post," slightly more racy. Than perhaps the "Journal." in the United Kingdom, he has the "Sun," the "Times" and the "Sunday Times" as well. All the biggest best-selling papers in the U.K. On radio, he -- yes, you can always find a station, a Murdoch station, he owns lots of radio stations. And then you've got book publishers, which include Harper-Collins. I do like a good read on a holiday. Now when it comes to television he has long coveted sky he first attempted to buy it in 2012. That failed during the phone-hacking scandal in the U.K. Now after the latest attempt, off come the regulator says the failings at Fox News on sexual harassment you'll remember is not enough to disqualify it. So -- there is going to be an investigation. James and Rupert -- nice to see the family. James and Rupert have until the 14th to respond to the culture secretary. Fox will pay $260 million if the deal fails. Claire Sebastian has been tracking the developments over in the news room. So, what we make of all of this, because the core point here, at least from the Murdoch's point of view. They've got over the hurdle of are they fit and proper.</s>CLAIRE SEBASTIAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was interesting, Richard you talk about the last time they tried to do this back in two 10, 2011. The whole thing was torpedoed by the phone-hacking scandal. Many had worried that the Fox News sexual harassment allegations would act in the same way. Would torpedo this. That didn't turn out to be the case.</s>QUEST: We're back to old-fashioned grounds now for an investigation. Which is, do they have too much influence. Would they have too much power. That stronger ground in some cases. Than say character.</s>SEBASTIAN: Well that is -- that's essentially it. Off comes today is if 21st Century Fox takes over 100 percent of sky. That would give them 10 percent of all news across all platforms. That's a huge amount of power. They said there's a risk that members of the Murdoch family trust may seek to coordinate the editorial news policies omitting stories, highlighting others or using the same commentators in their newspapers or on television news. They have a chance now to really, to really try and fix that. They have two weeks to submit a proposal and might be able to stop a full investigation by the competition in marketplace.</s>QUEST: So, two weeks to stop the investigation. Or potentially stop it. If the investigation takes place, that's at least six months.</s>SEBASTIAN: At least six months. 24 weeks. That will take us almost to the end of the year. They announced this deal in December. So, it's already been quite a long time. And delay is risky. This is not what the Murdochs want. It's not the worst-case scenario. This is still you know, a setback. How much of this is business, how much of the opposition is political. How much of it is -- you know where I'm going. How much is the bridge government doesn't want to do this, but it's got to find a way not to do it?</s>QUEST: I think we got a sense of how divisive the 86-year-old media mogul is. The opposition came out and accused the new government, the new tory government with its wafer-thin majority of essentially trying to delay the inevitable. Of kicking the can down the road and trying to look tough by delaying it. Murdoch has always been accused of being too close to tory politicians and the labor opposition is very much against this. I'm going to do something very risky. I'm going to show my phone on -- got to be careful before you show a phone just in case somebody sends an inappropriate text at the wrong moment but anyway, the iPhone, it's a big day, didn't get a chance to see a thing on that. The iPhone, it's a big day, ten years ago it was in the store. When we come back we'll look inside how the most popular product nearly didn't come to be.