Here is what Rupert Murdoch told the House of Lords Communications committee regarding Sky News. Personally (not that I would necessarily want to) I think you could Fox up Sky, but what you lack in the UK is the Talk Radio base from which to recruit your talent. But don’t listen to me yacking on – here is the man himself [my italics]:

46. Mr Murdoch stated that the BBC had set the mould for TV in the UK. The BBC was responsible for the training of most people in the UK television industry. This meant that many people working in commercial television in the UK were not trained to make commercial decisions. He stated that “the BBC has a unique place in British life”. People were very hostile to any challenge to the BBC. News Corp was the first organisation to bring proper football coverage to the UK. Their investment led to better football grounds and other benefits. However it had been a real struggle.

47. He believed that Sky News would be more popular if it were more like the Fox News Channel. Then it would be “a proper alternative to the BBC”. One of the reasons that it is not a proper alternative to the BBC is that no broadcaster or journalist in the UK knows any different. Mr Murdoch stated that Sky News could become more like Fox without a change to the impartiality rules in the UK. For example Sky had not yet made the presentational progress that Fox News had. He stated that the only reason that Sky News was not more like Fox News was that “nobody at Sky listens to me”.

48. Mr Murdoch believed that the role of the media is “to inform”. Reporters are there to find out what is going on and editors are there to invest in those investigations if they uncover something.