Sources say decision to stop broadcasting controversial channel is not connected to Fox’s £11.7bn takeover bid for Sky 
 
 Rupert Murdoch has taken the rightwing US channel Fox News off the air in the UK after 15 years. 
 
 His US media group 21st Century Fox said it would withdraw Fox News from Sky in the UK on Tuesday because it no longer regarded the service as commercially viable. 
 
 
 
 The decision came as Karen Bradley, the culture secretary, is set to return her verdict on whether to ask the competition regulator to launch an investigation into the Murdochs’ adherence to broadcasting standards in the UK as part of an inquiry into Fox’s £11.7bn takeover bid for Sky. 
 
 
 
 However, sources said the decision to stop broadcasting Fox News, which went off air at 4pm, was not connected to the takeover bid, arguing that the channel attracted only about 2,000 viewers a day in the UK. 
 
 
 
 “[Fox] has decided to cease providing a feed of Fox News Channel in the UK,” a spokeswoman for the company said. “Fox News is focused on the US market and designed for a US audience and, accordingly, it averages only a few thousand viewers across the day in the UK. We have concluded that it is not in our commercial interest to continue providing Fox News in the UK.” 
 
 
 
 Fox News has become increasingly troublesome for the Murdochs as they attempt to buy Sky. 
 
 The channel is embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal that led to a string of high-profile figures leaving, including the chairman Roger Ailes, who has since died, and leading presenter Bill O’Reilly. 
 
 It has also been accused of colluding with Donald Trump’s White House on a discredited story about a murdered Democrat activist, which critics of the Murdochs have compared to the News of the World hacking the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. 
 
 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”. 
 
 Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader and shadow culture secretary, said the disappearance of Fox News from British screens should not affect the government’s decision on whether 21st Century Fox should be allowed to buy Sky. 
 
 
 
 “Fox News has breached Ofcom’s rules over and over again, so 21st Century Fox clearly thought it was easier to pull it from the UK altogether than to clean up its act,” Watson said. 
 
 “But the ongoing corporate governance and sexual harassment scandal at Fox News is still deeply relevant to the question of whether 21st Century Fox should be allowed to take over Sky, whether the channel is broadcast here or not.” 
 
 Fox News was taken off air between 5am and 11pm on election day to avoid any issues with Ofcom. 
 
 UK fans of Fox News will not be able to turn to the internet to watch the channel as it is not streamed online. Only clips of Fox News programming are available online. 
 
 Sky, which is 39% controlled by 21st Century Fox, continues to fund Sky News, which loses tens of millions of pounds a year. 
 
 Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader and long-time Murdoch critic, said: “This decision shows the Murdochs panicking about their bid for Sky. It amounts to an admission that despite having broadcast here year after year, Fox News is not fit for UK broadcasting in the standards and ethics of its journalism. It’s yet more proof that the Murdochs can’t be trusted to own 100% of Sky. 
 
 “Stopping broadcasting in the UK changes nothing. Fox News in the US is the Murdochs’ channel, they are responsible for its broadcasting standards and the appalling racial and sexual harassment that happened on their watch. The Murdochs can’t run from their record at Fox News.” 

 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Rupert Murdoch with sons Lachlan (l) and James (r) 
 
 Sky is to stop broadcasting Fox News in the UK after low audience figures, the media firm has said. 
 
 21st Century Fox, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, said the channel was being withdrawn as it was not commercially viable. 
 
 The decision was not related to Fox's takeover bid for Sky, a source told the BBC. 
 
 Culture secretary Karen Bradley has previously said she may refer the bid to competition regulators. 
 
 "[Fox] has decided to cease providing a feed of Fox News Channel in the UK," a company spokeswoman said. 
 
 "Fox News is focused on the US market and designed for a US audience and, accordingly, it averages only a few thousand viewers across the day in the UK. 
 
 "We have concluded that it is not in our commercial interest to continue providing Fox News in the UK," she added. 
 
 Sky stopped broadcasting the US television network in the UK from 4pm on Tuesday. 
 
 In May, a woman who alleged that she had been sexually harassed at Fox News asked UK media regulators to block 21st Century Fox's planned purchase of Sky. 
 
 Sky eyes 
 
 The company source said complaints against Fox News in relation to the takeover bid were not the reason for the TV network being dropped. 
 
 The source said that Fox News had about 2,000 average daily viewers. The costs of distributing the US network in the UK meant it was not in 21st Century Fox's commercial interests to continue, the source added. 
 
 However, figures from the Broadcaster's Audience Research Board (Barb) suggest that Fox News' average UK daily viewing figures were nearly 60,000 per day this year. 
 
 Back in December, 21st Century Fox offered £11.7bn for the 61% stake in Sky it does not already own. 
 
 Critics of the merger, which gives 21st Century Fox access to Sky's 22 million customers in Europe, say Rupert Murdoch will have too much control of the UK media.
– As of Tuesday, TV viewers in the UK can no longer get their Sean Hannity fix. Per the BBC, 21st Century Fox announced it has pulled its news feed from UK broadcaster Sky in a deal it says is no longer in the company’s “commercial interest.” The reason? No one’s watching. A company spokesperson cited Fox News’ dismal ratings directly for the move: "Fox News is focused on the US market and designed for a US audience and, accordingly, it averages only a few thousand viewers across the day in the UK.” One source told the BBC that Sky received about 2,000 Fox News viewers per day. But data from the Broadcaster's Audience Research Board suggests that its UK audience is much higher, averaging up to 60,000 viewers daily in 2017. There’s speculation over whether 21st Century Fox owner Rupert Murdoch’s bid to buy Sky has influenced the decision. (21st Century Fox already owns a 39% stake in the broadcaster.) As the Guardian puts it, "Fox News has become increasingly troublesome for the Murdochs as they attempt to buy Sky," and those troubles could threaten the takeover bid. Issues related to Fox News have been the center of multiple rulings from Ofcom, the UK media regulator, and then there's the negative press regarding the network's sexual harassment scandal. Though 21st Century Fox denies it, critics like former Labour leader Ed Miliband view the decision as an attempt to distance the company from those controversies. Adds Labour MP Tom Watson, "Fox News has breached Ofcom’s rules over and over again, so 21st Century Fox clearly thought it was easier to pull it from the UK altogether than to clean up its act."