US CABLE company Comcast’s proposed takeover of Sky would do less damage to media plurality than Rupert Murdoch’s bid but must be properly scrutinised, campaigners said today.

The offer for the broadcaster by the owner of CNBC and Universal Pictures is 16 per cent higher than Mr Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox’s bid in a deal worth £22.1 billion.

Last month, the Competition and Markets Authority found that a Fox takeover would hand Mr Murdoch too much control over the British media.

Comcast has pledged to ensure the future of Sky News and claims its takeover bid would escape concerns over media plurality because of its “minimal presence” in British media.

But Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson said Comcast needed to “demonstrate its commitment to plurality by guaranteeing a properly funded Sky News for at least a decade as a key condition of the sale.”

Mr Watson, who is also shadow culture secretary, said: “The UK’s media plurality and Sky’s high broadcasting standards are at stake in this bidding process.

“All bids, including this new one from Comcast, must be very carefully scrutinised.”

Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom national organiser Josef Davies-Coates said: “It is yet another spanner in the works for Murdoch taking full ownership of Sky.

“We are generally against further concentration of the media, which this would still represent, but at least it would have not as much impact on media plurality in the UK.

“Whilst Comcast do have operations here, they don’t own best-selling or agenda-setting newspapers.”