Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc. boosted its bid for Sky Plc, topping a rival offer from Comcast Corp. in the battle or control of Britain’s top pay-TV company.

Fox’s latest offer of 14 pounds per share values Sky at 24.5 billion pounds (US$32 billion), a 12 per cent premium to Comcast’s rival 22 billion pound offer, the New York-based media company said in a statement Wednesday.

The fight for Sky is part of a wider contest between Comcast and Walt Disney Co. for the bulk of Murdoch’s media empire, as each tries to scale up to take on streaming competitors Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. Murdoch has agreed to sell Fox’s entertainment assets including its stake in Sky to Disney, though Comcast is weighing another counteroffer for the Fox portfolio.

The U.K. government, which has already said it’s minded to approve Fox’s bid for Sky after Fox satisfied concerns over media plurality, is due to deliver its final ruling on Thursday.

Fox first bid for the 61 per cent of Sky it doesn’t already own in December 2016, offering 10.75 pounds per share, but was held up over concerns that the tie-up would give Murdoch too much influence over Britain’s media. Britain’s former Culture Minister Matt Hancock, who was replaced Monday night with Jeremy Wright in a cabinet shakeup, had said he was willing to let the takeover go ahead, provided Fox sold Sky’s 24-hour news channel to Disney.

Comcast tabled a proposal of 12.50 pounds per share for Sky in February, and Sky’s stock has traded consistently above the Comcast offer as investors anticipated Fox or Disney would come back with more. Comcast faces a deadline of Friday to put its offer to Sky shareholders.