REPORT: SOME BSKYB EXECS WILL FLEE IF MURDOCH TAKES OVER

If Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp succeeds in buying up the 59.9 percent of home satellite provider British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) that it doesn’t already own, top executives of the company may move elsewhere, the London Financial Times observed today (Monday), quoting one investor as saying, “I think executives leaving is not just a possibility, it is an inevitability. Perhaps this won’t happen immediately but it is clearly a very different ownership model.” The FT quoted a senior insider as saying that under CEO Jeremy Darroch, “there is a really good, collegiate feel to the place with everyone working to drive shareholder value, and that is simply not going to happen in the same way with News Corp making all the decisions.” The FT speculated that one of the decisions Murdoch may have already made is to bundle his London newspapers, the Times and the Sun, in a subscription plan that would also include BSkyB and Internet broadband. With all of BSkyB’s subscription revenue on its books, News Corp would be able to depend less on income from advertising as it shifts to a “paid-for media model.”