The media empire controlled by Rupert Murdoch and his son James was given near-daily updates by e-mail from Hunt's office, while the culture secretary was in charge of scrutinising the takeover.
News Corp executives were even given private briefings on Hunt's confidential discussions with regulators and other media organisations.
At one point, a News Corp's chief lobbyist e-mailed James Murdoch to say he had "managed to get some info" on what Hunt would announce to parliament the next day.
The lobbyist suggested an agreed "plan" between News Corp and the government would lead to "game-over for the opposition".
Hunt was initially not involved in whether the takeover should be approved. However, he was given the quasi-legal job of deciding BSkyB's fate in December 2010 after Business Secretary Vince Cable was stripped of the role for telling two undercover Daily Telegraph reporters he had "declared war on Mr Murdoch".
Hunt's job was to remain impartial as he weighed up whether letting News Corp take over BSKyB would hand too much power to the Murdoch family.
However, his close relationship with News Corp is revealed as part of Rupert Murdoch's evidence on the workings of the media industry.
The e-mails were from the computer of Frederic Michel, an expert in managing reputation, who was News Corp's head of public affairs and a key lobbyist in Westminster.
Throughout the conversations, Michel refers to his intelligence from "Jeremy" or "JH", though he now says he used this as a "shorthand" term for Hunt's advisers, Adam Smith and John Zeff.
The existence of the e-mails was revealed yesterday as James Murdoch, the News Corp boss, gave evidence to the Leveson inquiry. His father is due to appear today.
He defended the actions of his lobbyists, saying Michel was "doing his job as a public affairs executive".
The government's willingness last year to approve the controversial deal prompted critics to argue that Cameron and Hunt had been too close to the Murdochs. After the phone- hacking allegations snowballed, Cameron called on News Corp to withdraw the bid, effectively dooming it.
Investigations into the hacking scandal have hinged on how much James Murdoch knew about illegal practices at the News of the World, especially when he approved a large payout for a hacking-related legal claim.
He has consistently maintained that his underlings failed to alert him to the extent of the wrongdoing.
"Knowing what we know now about the culture at the News of the World ... then it must have been cavalier about risk and that is a matter of huge regret," he said.
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