BBC Two has commissioned a 3×60-minute social history series from 72 Films, which explores the extraordinary reach of the Murdoch empire across the British press. A Tabloid Empire (WT) covers Murdoch’s businesses between 1997 and 2012 in forensic detail. It examines how the popular press went from exerting astonishing influence over the British public’s politics, public […]
As 21st Century Fox walks away from Sky after selling its 39% stake in the business to Comcast, Ampere Analysis research director Guy Bisson predicts that Sky will transform – but don’t expect major changes. Believe it or not, but I was one of Sky TV’s very first employees. Back in the late 1980s while […]
21st Century Fox has agreed to sell its 39% stake in Sky to Comcast after the US pay TV giant emerged triumphant from an intense bidding process over the weekend. With the move Rupert Murdoch, who is chairman of 21st Century Fox, cashes out his interest in Sky – a company that he launched in […]
Twenty-first Century Fox (21CF) has named Lachlan Murdoch (pictured) as the executive chairman and chief executive officer for the proposed ‘New Fox’, which will be established as Disney purchases Fox assets in the coming year. The new structure will also see Rupert Murdoch serving as co-chairman and John Nallen, 21CF’s chief financial officer, taking a […]
21st Century Fox remains confident that it will secure regulatory approval for its acquisition of Sky by the middle ofthis year, despite the Competition And Markets Authority’s provisional ruling in January that the deal was “not in the public interest”. The UK competition watchdog provisionally blocked the takeover on the grounds that the acquisition of 100% […]
21st Century Fox’s second attempt to buy up UK satcaster Sky has been provisionally blocked by the local regulator. Having failed to get a deal over the line in 2011 after revelations around the News International phone hacking scandal, the new approach has been rebuffed on media plurality grounds. The news may have implications for […]
News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch has called for Facebook to pay publishers for news content in the same way that TV operators pay broadcasters to air their channels. In a statement, Murdoch said that reputable news outlets are “not being adequately rewarded”, despite “obviously enhancing the value and integrity of Facebook” through their content. […]
TBI turns 30 this year, and to celebrate we will be publishing a series of archive articles chronicling the evolving television and entertainment landscape since 1988. Our first retrospective is a profile of a younger Rupert Murdoch back in 1990. At this point, the buccaneering executive was still attempting to establish Sky TV as the […]
While AT&T’s US$85 billion acquisition of Time Warner is the biggest media deal in purely numerical terms (if it gets done), The Walt Disney Company picking off rival 21st Century Fox marks a seminal moment in TV and film history. The deal, which the companies believe will close in twelve to 18 months, knocks off […]
The Walt Disney Company has secured a US$66 billion deal that hands it most of 21st Century Fox’s TV and film assets, marking a seismic moment in recent entertainment history. The deal effectively brings to an end Rupert Murdoch’s long career in entertainment media empire building, though he retains control of News Corp, which is […]
