LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Monday it would decide as "soon as is reasonably practicable" whether to refer Rupert Murdoch's $15 billion (£11.59 billion) bid to buy pay-TV group Sky (L:SKYB) for an in-depth review.
Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox (O:FOXA) agreed to take full control of the European pay-TV group Sky in December, but the British government is still deciding whether to refer the deal for a full investigation which could add many months to the approval process.
It asked regulator Ofcom to look again at certain aspects of the deal in August and said on Monday it would carefully consider the advice before taking a final decision.
(This version of the story was refiled to fix typo in headline)