It emerged on Friday that Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox film and television group had swooped in with an £11.2bn offer to take full control of the broadcaster, of which it already owns 39%.
Murdoch was previously forced to abandon an attempt to take full control in 2011 amid a public outcry over his businesses’ journalistic practices after it emerged that journalists at the News of the World had hacked the phone of the murdered teenager Milly Dowler.
Evan Harris, joint executive director of Hacked Off, said: “This bid will need to be checked by Ofcom, not only on competition grounds but whether Rupert and James Murdoch pass the ‘fit and proper person’ test.” Murdoch faced a similar such test during his failed bid for the company five years ago.
Harris added: “Given recent revelations around e-mail deletions that have emerged in court papers, and the conviction of the Murdoch ‘favourite’ Mazher Mahmood, it is clear that that question can only answered by the Leveson phase 2 inquiry, which was established to get to the truth of precisely these matters.
“It is surely more than a coincidence that the prime minister’s secret meeting in New York with Rupert Murdoch was followed swiftly by her attempt to cancel the Leveson phase 2 inquiry into the News Corp hacking cover-up, and then this takeover bid.”
Hacked Off was formed to represent the many subjects of tabloid newspaper stories whose phone messages were hacked by journalists gathering information on them.
Others were concerned over the political power that full control of Sky would hand to Murdoch. The Labour MP and former shadow culture secretary Chris Bryant said: “Have we in Britain learned nothing about handing over the largest broadcaster by value and the largest share of newspapers to a single individual? The damage that does in the end to our political system is immense.
“It’s a phenomenal concentration of social and political power and if we let it go through without so much of a by your leave, we will rue the day. Again.”
He suggested rival media organisations and others who cared about media plurality should join together to object to the plans.
The Labour MP Paul Farrelly, a member of the culture, media and sport select committee both now and during the phone-hacking scandal, said: “It looks like a business as usual for Rupert Murdoch, as though phone hacking never happened. Rebekah Brooks is back at the helm of News UK and now the Murdochs have moved in on Sky.”
Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, also waded in, with two tweets posted shortly after news of the deal emerged on Friday in which he accused the Prime Minister, Theresa May, of betraying her promise to stick up for the public.
Owning Sky would give Fox, whose cable networks include Fox News and FX, control of a pay-TV network spanning 22mn households in Britain, Ireland, Austria, Germany and Italy. Some analysts wondered whether there might be cause for an EU investigation into foreign ownership.
Others, however, said the change in circumstances since the last attempted Sky takeover could give Murdoch an easier ride. Liberum analysts told Reuters that because News Corporation had now separated from Fox – which means the bidding firm no longer owns UK newspapers – and because there were no competition issues, the deal would face less opposition.
They also said the government was keen to promote investment in the wake of the Brexit vote and could present the deal as a sign of confidence in the economy.