Parent company 21st Century Fox has pulled the plug on the Fox News Channel in the U.K., ostensibly due to low ratings. But a cynic might think it’s more about the conglomerate’s bid for Sky.

CNN reported:

The network’s parent company, 21st Century Fox, has announced that the controversial news channel will no longer be broadcast in the U.K. after failing to attract an audience. The network has also become a lightning rod for critics seeking to spoil the Murdochs’ planned $15 billion takeover of Sky, the top pay TV provider in the U.K.

“Fox News is focused on the U.S. market and designed for a U.S. audience and, accordingly, it averages only a few thousand viewers across the day in the U.K.,” 21st Century Fox said in a statement.

“We have concluded that it is not in our commercial interest to continue providing Fox News in the U.K.,” it added.

According to The Guardian, 21st Century Fox insists the move has nothing to do with Sky but also notes that “Fox News has become increasingly troublesome for the Murdochs as they attempt to buy Sky.” Furthermore:

Ofcom, the UK media regulator, has also made a number of rulings against Fox News broadcasts in the last year, adding to the total of 22 breaches by Fox of its licence and Ofcom’s codes and rules in the last decade. Of those, Fox News was responsible for seven, including four last year, one of them being a programme which featured a guest who said Birmingham was a city “where non-Muslims just simply don’t go”.

Whether removing Fox News from the British airwaves will help the Murdoch family take over Sky remains to be seen.

Murdoch image via screen grab.