James Murdoch resigns as Chairman of BSkyB

When this broke in the 1pm BST hour today, I was stunned.  I was not expecting this to have happened today.  In fact, I wasn't expecting it at all.  James wil stay on as a member of the board, but he's no longer Chairman.

Ofcom is investigating whether NewsCorp is a fit and proper company to hold a broadcasting licence.  There are many investigations in the UK, the USA and Australia right now.  But I cannot honestly see how NewsCorp can continue to own assets like British Sky Broadcasting, Foxtel and Fox Broadcasting Company.

I also think the FCC should take this as an opportunity to finally regulate the cable broadcasting market in the US. 

Of course, James's resignation is another line of firewall, designed to protect Rupert Murdoch and NewsCorp's investments across the world. Just last week, Panorama on BBC1 reported how NewsCorp subsidiary company NDS had been invloved in breaking the Canal Plus encryption system that On/ITV Digital was using.  Then the Australian Financial Review released emails detailing NDS's involvement in breaking other encryption systems of competitors.  Currently, Cisco Systems is seeking to acquire NDS Group.

No matter how many levels of firewalls Rupert Murdoch puts in, everything goes back to him, one way or another.  Murdoch is well known for handling things himself and being very hands on.  Because of that reputation, he will not be able to wash his hands of all the controversies that now dog him.

Dish Network vs FOX. On the digital battleground.

This one almost passed me by, so it's nice that I actually caught up with this story now. Dish Network is having a contretant with Fox over their sports and entertainment channels, so Fox News and Fox Business are unaffected.

This primarily affects FX, Fox Sports Net and National Geographic Channel. However, in about a month's time, Fox Television Network and My Network TV could well be affected as well.

Obviously, both sides have launched websites detailing their case. But in addition to those, I'd like to remind you of one thing.

Fox is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns DirecTV, the direct opposition in the US Satellite TV market to Dish Network.

Murdoch likes people to think what he tells them to think. In that same area of satellite television, he owns Sky in the UK, Star in Asia and Foxtel in Australia. There are other subsidiary operations linked to those companies.

So Rupert Murdoch is used to getting his own way. The fact that Dish are standing up to him, is interesting. We will see how this story develops.