A regulatory filing placed today revealed that News Corp's share holding had risen to 686m shares of BSkyB, equal to a 39% stake in the broadcaster.
News Corp had owned 37% of BSkyB at the beginning of the share buyback scheme.
The share buyback programme had come under fire from investors last year. Among them the Association of British Insurers and Hermes Pension Management, because it allowed News Corp to make gains in acquisitions of the company's shares without having to make a takeover bid for the broadcaster.
Those same investors had raised concern at the appointment of Murdoch's son James Murdoch as chief executive, believing News Corp was cementing its control of the UK satellite broadcaster.
News Corp was granted a waiver from UK takeover rules by shareholders in November, allowing it to snap up the extra shares. The buyback was then approved in separate but linked resolutions.
Shares in BSkyB fell 1.4% or 7.5p this afternoon to 542.5p, as one trader quoted by Reuters claimed that the Deutsche Bank "are talking Sky down" in the belief that Sky shares are overpriced after a one-on-one meeting with the broadcaster.
However, a spokesman for Deutsche Bank denied that it has spoken to BSkyB.
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