Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper business could face scrutiny for three more years after the officer heading a police inquiry into phone-hacking and illegal payments to public officials said she expected it to last that long.
The police investigation into criminal activities at Murdoch's News International unit has already forced him to close the News of the World tabloid and end a deal to acquire the whole of the pay-TV group BSkyB, which would have been the biggest deal in News Corp's history.
Speaking at a parliamentary committee on Tuesday, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers said London's police force had budgeted for three more years of inquiries into the illegal activities of British journalists.
Those investigations have broadened from an initial focus into allegations that News of the World reporters hacked into voicemail messages left on the mobile phones of celebrities, politicians and crime victims and now includes probes into corrupt payments to officials and computer hacking.
A total of 79 people have been arrested across all three inquiries, about half of which are current or former journalists who mostly worked for Murdoch's papers.
Prime Minister David Cameron's ex-media chief, Andy Coulson, and Rebekah Brooks, the former head of News International, are among a number of former News of the World staff charged with conspiring to hack phones.
With continued embarrassment from the police inquiries, there has been growing speculation Murdoch could sell his British titles after he stood down from a string of boards overseeing the Sun, Times and Sunday Times newspapers in July.
The company said in June it would separate its publishing and entertainment assets by next year in move to satisfy shareholders who had been pressing News Corp to rid itself of its troubled British newspapers business.