Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox said it had secured a deal to buy Britain’s Sky on Wednesday, ratcheting up the stakes of an ongoing bidding war to acquire the European television group.

Fox — which is widely expected to receive regulatory approval from the U.K. this week after initially reaching a deal with Sky in December 2016 — increased its offer to £14 per share on Wednesday morning, up from £10.75 per share. This values the deal at $32.5 billion.

The news puts the ball back in the court of U.S. media giant Comcast, which has offered £12.50 per share for Sky.

Fox, which already owns a 39 percent stake of Sky, said it had secured the backing of the independent committee of Sky for the deal.

Sky is seen as one of the media industry’s most coveted prizes for U.S. companies looking to expand their operations to Europe and to compete with upstarts like Netflix and Amazon. In addition to selling broadband and mobile phone services, Sky is also a leader for pay-TV in Britain, as well as other regional markets including Germany and Italy.

The new Fox bid marks the latest salvo in an 18-month takeover battle for Sky. Disney has agreed a $71 billion takeover of Fox’s entertainment assets, and will own all of Sky if Fox wins its bid.

Meanwhile, Comcast is also trying insert itself into both deals and has made an all-cash offer for the Fox assets, as well as a separate offer for Sky.

Disclosure: Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, parent company of CNBC and CNBC.com.