Rupert Murdoch is facing a government review of his UK media assets, after ministers decided to intervene in last year's acquisition by BSkyB, the satellite group he chairs, of a stake in ITV, the country's largest commercial broadcaster.

Alastair Darling, the UK trade and industry secretary, called yesterday for a review of whether the £940m ($1.84bn, €1.4bn) investment, "raises public interest concerns about the number of different owners of media enterprises" in Britain.