The owner of the Sun has run up more than £1.2bn in losses since the start of its costly battle to end allegations of illegal phone hacking almost 15 years ago.

News Group Newspapers (NGN), a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News UK which publishes the Sun and retains liability for the activities of the now defunct News of the World, reported a pre-tax loss of £18m in the year to 30 June 2024.

That was the smallest loss reported since 2011, when the Sun made a profit of £103.6m. Cumulative losses at NGN had climbed to £1.25bn by the end of June last year, accounts filed at Companies House show.

In January the Duke of Sussex became the latest victim to settle his legal claim against NGN with an undisclosed substantial payout that will be included in the company’s filings next year.

Hugh Grant, another vocal and long time campaigner keen to see the details of alleged phone hacking exposed in court, settled for an “enormous sum” last year.

Grant said that he would have “loved” to have gone to court, but if he had won and the damages awarded were any less than the offer he felt forced to accept, he would not have been able to afford legal costs put at roughly £10m for both sides that would have been required by the rules of civil litigation.

NGN’s latest accounts show that Murdoch’s newspaper empire incurred fresh costs of £14m related to legal costs and settlements in the phone-hacking scandal against the Sun and News of the World last year.

That was the smallest amount since NGN started revealing phone-hacking costs in 2011, and well down on the £51m in 2023 and £128m in 2022.

Filings published for Murdoch’s struggling rightwing news media venture, TalkTV show that its losses have climbed to £145m since its launch in 2022.

The business, which shut down its TV channel to go online-only last year, reported a £50.4m pre-tax loss in the year to June 2024.

Piers Morgan, TalkTV’s star signing, announced in January that he was leaving Murdoch’s media empire to take control of his Uncensored YouTube channel, He had previously said in February 2024 that he was leaving his daily evening TV show.

The Times and Sunday Times reported a slight year-on-year increase in annual profits to £61m for the period ending June 2024.

The parent company, Times Media, which also includes the Times Radio operation, took a £3.2m charge to “restructure its workforce to match the requirements of the business”. The company booked a £7.9m restructuring expense in 2023.