Murdoch must be stripped of BSkyB stake, says Labour April 29, 2012 HARRIET Harman, the shadow culture secretary, yesterday called for News Corp to be stripped of its 39 per cent stake in BSkyB. Speaking on the Sunday Politics Show, Harman said that Rupert Murdoch was “not a fit and proper person” to own a broadcast licence because of the “widespread criminality” that went on at his [...]
Ofcom deepens probe into BSkyB’s broadcast licence April 26, 2012 OFCOM has stepped up its probe into whether BSkyB remains “fit and proper” to hold a broadcast licence, it emerged yesterday. The investigation into whether News Corp is an appropriate dominant shareholder of the satellite broadcaster has focused so far on publicly available information, such as from newspaper reports and the Leveson inquiry. But last [...]
Hunt pleads ignorance over his office’s News Corp emails April 25, 2012 CULTURE secretary Jeremy Hunt took to the floor of the Commons to fight for his political life yesterday, pleading ignorance of the emails that show his department’s apparent closeness with News Corp. Hunt said his special adviser Adam Smith had “unintentionally overstepped the mark” in his frequent emails, calls and texts with top News Corp [...]
Email trail shows Hunt’s closeness to Murdoch Jr April 24, 2012 E-MAILS showing culture secretary Jeremy Hunt’s close relationship with News Corp during a probe into the firm’s BSkyB takeover were released by the Leveson inquiry yesterday. The 163-page trail of correspondence shows that Frederic Michel, News Corp’s director of public affairs in Europe, was in frequent contact with Hunt’s advisers from before the culture secretary [...]
Sky News faces Ofcom probe over hacking April 23, 2012 OFCOM yesterday announced it has launched an investigation into Sky News after the broadcaster accessed private email accounts. Prompted by Sky News’ admission a few weeks ago that it had “authorised a journalist to access the email of individuals suspected of criminal activity”, Ofcom is investigating fairness and privacy at the news channel. The media [...]
Switch-off for analogue TV April 17, 2012 LONDON’S analogue television signal was turned off in the early hours of this morning in the latest step of the UK’s digital switchover. BBC director general Mark Thompson and Arqiva chief executive John Cresswell last night drew a line under 75 years of analogue TV broadcasts to the capital as part of the nation’s upgrade [...]
BEST of the BROKERS April 11, 2012 BT GROUP JP Morgan Cazenove has downgraded the telecoms group from “overweight” to “neutral” following a strong share price performance that has seen it rise by 20 per cent over six months, compared to a drop of five per cent across the European telecoms sector. The broker sees revenue risk in both the full year [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 4, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES THREAT TO UK ACCESS TO VENTURE CAPITAL European rules on state aid have jeopardised small UK companies’ access to venture capital funding worth hundreds of millions of pounds each year, placing further strain on a sector already starved of credit. Under a measure included in the Finance Bill, venture capital trusts that invest [...]
Sky falls in on James Murdoch April 4, 2012 JAMES Murdoch yesterday resigned as chairman of BSkyB with immediate effect, just weeks after stepping down from News International to concentrate on his television businesses. After almost a decade on the Sky board, Murdoch yesterday announced to fellow directors that he felt “this is the right time to step aside… as attention continues to be [...]
Murdoch and Hannam’s departures symbolise power shift April 4, 2012 THERE can be no doubt that James Murdoch’s decision to step down as chairman of BSkyB is good news for the company. It will allow its highly capable chief executive, Jeremy Darroch, to continue building one of Britain’s most successful firms without being distracted by endless speculation about the future of its chairman. That said, [...]