Welcome to RupertLand
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation feels it’s time for its cousin BSkyB to join the family.
By Leah Borromeo on Thursday, June 17th, 2010 - 619 words.
The Murdoch gambit
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation feels it’s time for its cousin BSkyB to join the family. Since 2007, BSkyB has been under the control of CEO Jeremy Darroch. It is also the largest pay TV provider in the UK. When a News Corp takeover bid for BSkyB was rebuffed, my erstwhile colleagues at Sky with company shares leapt as high as the share price. Despite the apparent cosy kinship between firms (Rupert’s son James remains a non-executive director), the suits at Sky are no fools. They know they are starting to make a decent profit out of this part of the empire – relinquishing it for next to nothing is the last thing on their minds. James – Chairman and Chief Executive of News Corp Europe and Asia – is keenly avoiding public association with the bid. BSkyB’s independent directors issue statements.
We’re all too aware of the monopoly of one Sergio Berlusconi. Murdoch the Elder is not doing a large-scale version of Italian media. Under Berlusconi, everything from newspapers, magazines and television is dictated by one man whose sole purpose is to hang on to power and escape prosecution for dodgy dealings. Murdoch is a businessman addicted to acquisition – he has a typical collectors mentality of wanting to have everything with little regard for the consequence. Being able to pull the puppet strings of business and government is one of the benefits of his unique position…but it is not his drive.
There are many illusions of life at Murdoch towers. Especially at Sky News. It is not the plot to Tomorrow Never Dies. Rupert does not have a secret phone to editorial footsoldiers on newsdesks. When I was on the foreign desk, producers invoked the muscle of John Ryley, Head of News, when they were trying to swing the editorial eye. “John’s very keen” is a line often heard. Clever editors rebut with “let’s give him a call”.
BSkyB has turned down News Corp’s latest bid. News International (part of News Corp) already has a 38% stake in the business. What would a full takeover mean for Sky? You’ll see changes in the overall look and feel of programmes – they’ll adopt a common hue of spray tan and cheap lager. You will not see Sky News turn into a Fox News clone, although it will continue to be a red-top for television. It’s populist. There are no Ofcom rules against that. But bias and content will be as strictly monitored as it is now. Unlike its print counterparts, television news is not “self-regulating”. There are rules and very expensive penalties if you break them.
Bending rules is easy – select your pundits or fiddle your running order, for instance. But you cannot change the facts of an event to suit an overt agenda. At least not in this country.
I’m not worried about the future of journalistic balance in this case. I don’t think I’m naïve to believe in the regulating power of Ofcom. What will affect the quality of coverage is the tightening of money belts across foreign bureaux where correspondents have to think of ways of telling stories by not going to them.
What I am worried about is what will happen elsewhere. Business-wise, a monopoly like that planned should a takeover occur is frightening…it will send shockwaves into other industries – healthcare, property, construction, natural resources. Trying to work out who owns what in Rupert Land is akin to learning quantum physics in a day. Companies and interests are all tied in an elaborate tapestry of close friendships and blood relations. Its precedence is my alarming concern. Not the actual event.
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Leah worked as deputy foreign editor at Sky News for a number of years.
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Loading ...Leah Borromeo
old enough to know better, young enough not to careLondon
Leah Borromeo is a journalist who has served as deputy foreign editor at Sky News, fawned over Jon Snow's bad socks at Channel 4 News and nearly died in a Land Rover for APTN. She also writes for The Guardian, The Index on Censorship and was part of the team that won the Knight-Batten Award for Innovation in Journalism. Able to shoot and edit her own material, she's 'the biggest show off since Lady Godiva turned up in town on a horse claiming she had literally NOTHING to wear' and edits The Comment Factory.
http://fryingpanfire.comhttp://www.twitter.com/monstris
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