Who Owns Sky News?

Answer The Question

Does Sony own Sky

Deal includes multi-year extension of the first pay window and access to Sony Pictures’ rich film library – Sky and Sony Pictures Television (“SPT”) have agreed a new long-term partnership across the UK and Ireland, Germany, Italy, Austria and Switzerland ensuring Sky customers will have access to even more of the content they love all in one place.

The deal means that all new and future Sony Pictures Entertainment (“SPE”) feature film releases including recent hits Jumanji: The Next Level, Little Women, Bad Boys For Life and the forthcoming sequel Peter Rabbit 2 will be available on Sky Cinema, alongside new family animation from Lin-Manuel Miranda, Vivo, and Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters films Venom 2 and Morbius.

The parties have also extended their deals to make the titles available on all of Sky’s transactional services across all its markets – Sky Store and Sky Primafila as well as streaming services – NOW TV, Sky Ticket, Sky Show and Sky X – giving customers access to content live and on demand.

• The new long-term partnership also covers SPE’s extensive feature film library which includes the Hotel Transylvania, Ghostbusters, Karate Kid and the Spider-Man franchises.
• In the UK the partnership will also include the brand new hit show For Life (which will premiere on Sky Witness) and future SPT series renewals for Sky Entertainment with the next seasons of returning hits Blacklist, The Good Doctor & S.W.A.T.

“We’re delighted that this latest deal with Sony Pictures means Sky customers across Europe will have access to even more of the content they love all in one place on Sky Q alongside Discovery, HBO, Netflix and Showtime, the best sport in Europe and our award-winning originals.” Stephen van Rooyen Chief Executive Officer, UK & Europe, Sky Mark Young, Regional Executive Vice President, Western Europe, Sony Pictures Television said: “We are delighted to extend our special relationship with Sky through this new and improved Movie and TV series deal.

The industry is going through a dynamic and challenging time and our continued partnership is a tremendous way to present the full power of our library, in conjunction with our most popular titles, to Sky customers across Europe.” Notes to editors For further information: Darren Kalynuk, Head of Corporate Communications, Sky: [email protected] Edward Brody, Senior Manager Corporate Communications, EMEA, SPT: [email protected] High Res Images: About Sky With 24 million customers across seven countries, Sky is Europe’s leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of the Comcast group.

Our 32,000 employees help connect our customers to the very best entertainment, sports, news, arts and to our own local, original content. Following the success of Sky originals like Chernobyl, we plan to double our investment in original content by 2024.

• We’re also developing a new TV and movie studio, Sky Studios Elstree, which is expected to lead to the creation of over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in UK creative sector in the first five years alone.
• Our technology allows customers to watch what they want, when they want, how they want, and as we connect millions of families to content they love, we believe it is our responsibility to do it safely.

That’s why we offer services like Sky Broadband Buddy and the Sky Kids app. And our online streaming service, NOW TV, brings viewers all the enjoyment of Sky with the flexibility of a contract-free service. We also believe that a company of our scale has a responsibility that goes beyond our business, and into the community.

• We recently announced a series of commitments to help tackle racial injustice and improve diversity and inclusion.
• To ensure the commitments are delivered, Sky will invest £10million per year across its markets for each of the next three years.
• We’re committed to being Europe’s first net zero carbon entertainment company by 2030 – two decades before we have to – and we’re an inclusive employer recognised by The Times and Stonewall for our commitment to diversity.

About Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television (“SPT”) is one of the television industry’s leading content providers, producing, distributing and carrying programming worldwide in every genre and for every platform. In addition to managing one of the industry’s largest libraries of award-winning feature films, television shows and formats, SPT is home to a thriving global content business, operating 25 wholly-owned or joint-venture production companies in 12 countries, as well as linear and digital channels around the world.

Does Europe have Sky TV?

Enjoy British television anywhere abroad with Sky TV and Now TV in Europe, Asia and the Americas. – Sky TV Europe. Skycards.eu are Europe’s leading seller of all things Sky television. Sky viewing cards, boxes and receivers, IPTV and accessories are all available.

The Sky + HD box and viewing card package which can be ordered HERE. The Sky Q 2 TB system HERE. The Roku UHD and VPN router HERE. Sky Stream and VPN – HERE.

Tel – +44 (0) 2032 838 000 or email [email protected] / [email protected] For the premium live British and American TV in Europe and Asia choose Sky or now TV. Our Now TV and VPN router package in Europe and Asia will allow you to subscribe to the Sky package of your choice wherever you are.

Whether it’s Sky Sports, Sky Atlantic (HBO) Sky Cinema or Entertainment channels throughout the World Skycards brings you the very best in Expat tv for Sky and freesat channels. Skycards.eu have been offering English television and Sky TV to expats throughout Europe, Asia and Africa for over 20 years.

With Now TV you can now receive this service anywhere in the World.

Does Rupert Murdoch own all of Fox?

Murdoch sold all of the entertainment assets within Fox Corp. in 2019, including 21st Century Fox, for $71 billion. At 88, that transaction marked Murdoch’s largest accrual of wealth in his nearly 70-year career.

Who is the owner of Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch, in full Keith Rupert Murdoch, (born March 11, 1931, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), Australian -born American newspaper publisher and media entrepreneur who founded (1979) the global media holding company the News Corporation Ltd.

Why was Fox News removed from Sky

Rupert Murdoch has taken the rightwing US channel Fox News off the air in the UK after 15 years. His US media group 21st Century Fox said it would withdraw Fox News from Sky in the UK on Tuesday because it no longer regarded the service as commercially viable.

• The decision came as Karen Bradley, the culture secretary, is set to return her verdict on whether to ask the competition regulator to launch an investigation into the Murdochs’ adherence to broadcasting standards in the UK as part of an inquiry into Fox’s £11.7bn takeover bid for Sky.
• However, sources said the decision to stop broadcasting Fox News, which went off air at 4pm, was not connected to the takeover bid, arguing that the channel attracted only about 2,000 viewers a day in the UK.

” has decided to cease providing a feed of Fox News Channel in the UK,” a spokeswoman for the company said. “Fox News is focused on the US market and designed for a US audience and, accordingly, it averages only a few thousand viewers across the day in the UK.

• We have concluded that it is not in our commercial interest to continue providing Fox News in the UK.” Fox News has become increasingly troublesome for the Murdochs as they attempt to buy Sky,
• The channel is embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal that led to a string of high-profile figures leaving, including the chairman Roger Ailes, who has since died, and leading presenter Bill O’Reilly,

It has also been accused of colluding with Donald Trump’s White House on a discredited story about a murdered Democrat activist, which critics of the Murdochs have compared to the News of the World hacking the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler,

Ofcom, the UK media regulator, has also made a number of rulings against Fox News broadcasts in the last year, adding to the total of 22 breaches by Fox of its licence and Ofcom’s codes and rules in the last decade. Of those, Fox News was responsible for seven, including four last year, one of them being a programme which featured a guest who said Birmingham was a city “where non-Muslims just simply don’t go”,

Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader and shadow culture secretary, said the disappearance of Fox News from British screens should not affect the government’s decision on whether 21st Century Fox should be allowed to buy Sky. “Fox News has breached Ofcom’s rules over and over again, so 21st Century Fox clearly thought it was easier to pull it from the UK altogether than to clean up its act,” Watson said.

“But the ongoing corporate governance and sexual harassment scandal at Fox News is still deeply relevant to the question of whether 21st Century Fox should be allowed to take over Sky, whether the channel is broadcast here or not.” Fox News was taken off air between 5am and 11pm on election day to avoid any issues with Ofcom.

UK fans of Fox News will not be able to turn to the internet to watch the channel as it is not streamed online. Only clips of Fox News programming are available online. Sky, which is 39% controlled by 21st Century Fox, continues to fund Sky News, which loses tens of millions of pounds a year.

Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader and long-time Murdoch critic, said: “This decision shows the Murdochs panicking about their bid for Sky. It amounts to an admission that despite having broadcast here year after year, Fox News is not fit for UK broadcasting in the standards and ethics of its journalism.

It’s yet more proof that the Murdochs can’t be trusted to own 100% of Sky. “Stopping broadcasting in the UK changes nothing. Fox News in the US is the Murdochs’ channel, they are responsible for its broadcasting standards and the appalling racial and sexual harassment that happened on their watch.

What has happened to BBC on Sky

The regional versions of BBC One HD have now launched on satellite – Freesat and Sky viewers with high definition (HD)-enabled devices can now watch their local version of BBC One in HD on channel 101 (BBC One HD). Freeview viewers also now have their version of BBC One HD listed in the HD genre in EPG slot 101.

To enable the launch of the HD versions of our channels on satellite, we have had to switch off all the standard definition (SD) versions of BBC One. This has only impacted viewers who use an SD-only satellite set-top box (Freesat or Sky) to receive their TV. Freeview viewers will not have been impacted and do not need to upgrade any equipment.

Our full satellite SD channel portfolio will be switched off in early 2024 – so for now, only your local news programming on BBC One will be affected until you upgrade to high-definition equipment, but you will need to upgrade before early 2024 to continue to get BBC channels.

From 19th June, we put out extra messaging on the version of BBC One that our SD-only satellite viewers will see, reminding them of the need to upgrade, please see our FAQ. Where can I get help if I’m a Freesat or non-subscribing Sky customer?     For satellite viewers, our help scheme is ready to assist with the transition to HD at www.hdsatelliteupgrade.co.uk,

It contains all the information about the changes, the dates when individual HD regions were switched on, and also has details on eligibility for support to help you upgrade your set-top box to HD. If you want to check if you need to take any action, don’t forget that Freesat has launched a tool to see if you’re affected – please go to channel 799 on your Freesat device.

What is Sky News audience?

Since SkyNews.com.au relaunched in July 2021, traffic has rocketed with more national and international visitors than ever before, catapulting us to one of the top Australian news websites. Our advertising partners have also benefited through reaching a much larger mainstream audience, high impact ad units, integrated content partnerships and a bigger and broader reach with targeted access to over 3,000 audience demographic segments through News Connect audience intelligence. I’d like to thank our commercial partners for their continued support as Sky News maintains and grows its position as Australia’s premiere network to reach highly-engaged online communities. For the third consecutive year, Sky News Australia has maintained its position as the number one Australian media brand on YouTube, with almost double the number of subscribers than its nearest competitor (ABC News). Further cementing its position as one of the country’s largest digital news publishers, Sky News Australia has become the first Australian TV news channel to reach the 3 million subscriber milestone on YouTube. An average 30 million unique monthly viewers watch Sky News Australia’s YouTube channel, including 6.6 million Australians, making it one of the world’s largest news channels and Australia’s highest-reaching news brand on the world’s most-visited video sharing platform. For the third consecutive year, Sky News Australia is the most-engaged Australian TV news channel page on Facebook, and the second most-engaging Australian news page overall, reaching 6.4 million Australians each month on the social media platform throughout 2022. Sky News Australia’s Facebook posts have delivered more audience engagement (likes, comments and shares) than any other TV news page. SkyNews.com.au is now one of Australia’s leading news websites with more than 5.2 million monthly unique visitors worldwide accessing the site, an increase of 125% year-on-year. Sky News Australia has boosted its investment in digital journalism and long-form text offering on SkyNews.com.au, expanding its team of digital journalists, and adding a roster of local and international columnists and newsmakers including Megyn Kelly, Nigel Farage, Douglas Murray and Piers Morgan. Driving the surge in viewership and readership across all digital platforms, Sky News has covered a broad range of major news events including extensive digital coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, and an exclusive Sky News documentary investigation into the disappearance of MH370 which received more than nine million online views, and is the network’s most viewed program for the year. Sky News Australia’s high-profile commentators such as Chris Kenny, Peta Credlin, Andrew Bolt, Paul Murray, Rita Panahi and Piers Morgan continue to resonate with online audiences in Australia, and around the world. Paul Whittaker, Chief Executive Officer, Sky News Australia said: “We have rapidly scaled up our video content offering delivering premium news, opinion, documentaries, and special investigations, to more Australians than ever before, across more digital platforms. In just four years, the Sky News YouTube channel alone has grown from 8,000 to 3 million subscribers. “Local and international audiences are seeking out, and engaging with, our online news and national affairs offering in record numbers, accessing the latest news and analysis from the Sky News team whenever and wherever they want to watch. Over the next 12 months we are continuing to invest heavily in our digital strategy, further boosting our team of digital journalists and digital-first content initiatives.” Sky New Australia’s video content is now viewed more than 1.5 billion times across its digital network annually, an increase of 30% year-on-year. Tim Love, Head of Digital, Sky News Australia said: “The huge interest in Sky News Australia’s news and commentary, not just in this country but around the world, has been exciting to watch grow. Our SkyNews.com.au team has become the nation’s top group of content creators across video and text reporting and our 2022 results show that the network has become Australia’s most engaging news brand on the internet, which is a testament to the team’s ability to cover the big issues that resonate with mainstream audiences. “Planning is underway to invest to grow the network and reach even greater milestones in 2023 and beyond.” Sky News is Australia’s unrivalled 24-hour multi-platform news service provider available on Foxtel and free-to-air regional channel Sky News Regional, and available on news streaming service Flash at www.SkyNews.com.au/Flash, Sky News is the number one non-sport channel on Foxtel, the most-viewed channel on streaming service Flash and the highest-reaching Australian news brand on social media. If you are interested in connecting your business with our valuable digital audience, please be in touch via [email protected] or contact your News Corp Australia representative who will be able to share more information. Sources: Claim: #1 Australian news brand on YouTube. Source: Sky News Australia channel vs 7 News, 9 News, 10 News First, SBS News, ABC News (Australia), YouTube analytics (public). Subscribers & Total Video Views. Claim: #1 Australian news channel on Facebook. Source: Crowdtangle, Post engagements, Sky News Australia page vs 7 News, 9 News, 10 News First, SBS News, ABC News (Australia) pages. January 1 2022 – October 2022. Claim: 1.5 billion video views online. Source: Sky News Australia on YouTube, Facebook, SkyNews.com.au, Microsoft MSN, News Corp Aus websites. January 2022 – October 2022. Claim: Most engaging Australian news brand online. Source: Engagement calculated as the aggregate figure of: YouTube video views + subscribers gained. Facebook post comments, reactions, shares + video views. Monthly unique visitors to main websites per Nielsen. Engagements aggregated for the total figure for each brand, Sky News Australia vs all other Australian media outlets. January 2022 – October 2022. Claim: Average 30 million unique monthly viewers, including 6.6 million Australians, on YouTube. Source: YouTube Analytics, January 1 2022 – October 2022. Claim: One of the world’s largest news channels and Australia’s highest-reaching news brand on YouTube. Source: https://pressgazette.co.uk/media-audience-and-business-data/biggest-news-youtube/ Claim: SkyNews.com.au is now one of Australia’s leading news websites: Nielsen Net Ratings Top 10 News and Current Events category, September 2022. Claim: >5.2 million monthly unique visitors worldwide accessing SkyNews.com.au, up +125% year-on-year. Source: Adobe Analytics, January 1 2022 – October 2022. Source: Linear – OzTAM National Panel, All Day, Ave Aud, Share % & Overnight 2022

Why did Disney sell Sky?

The Walt Disney Company Consents to 21st Century Fox’s Decision to Tender its 39% Stake in Sky Disney Plans to Aggressively Invest in Content Creation for Its Direct-to-Consumer Platforms BURBANK, Calif., September 26, 2018—The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) has consented to Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc.’s (“21st Century Fox”—NASDAQ: FOXA, FOX) decision to tender or sell its 39% stake in Sky plc as soon as allowable under terms of Comcast Corp.’s £17.28 per share offer for Sky.

The current value of Fox’s Sky stake is more than $15 billion. The transaction, coupled with the divestiture of the Fox Sports Regional Networks, will significantly reduce the amount of debt Disney will incur in acquiring 21st Century Fox, and enable Disney to maintain its strong balance sheet as it continues to invest in content creation for its direct-to-consumer platforms.

Disney will expand its considerable investment in the Disney-branded direct-to-consumer offering launching in late 2019 and the new ESPN+ sports streaming service, and will seek to increase investment in Hulu’s content offerings and international distribution.

Disney and 21st Century Fox each currently hold 30% stakes in Hulu. “Along with the net proceeds from the divestiture of the RSNs, the sale of Fox’s Sky holdings will substantially reduce the cost of our overall acquisition and allow us to aggressively invest in building and creating high-quality content for our direct-to-consumer platforms to meet the growing demands of viewers,” said Robert A.

Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company. The acquisition has received formal approval from shareholders of both companies, and Disney and 21st Century Fox have entered into a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice that allows the acquisition to proceed, while requiring the sale of the Fox Sports Regional Networks.

The transaction is subject to a number of non-U.S. merger and other regulatory reviews. About The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries, is a diversified worldwide entertainment company with operations in four business segments: Media Networks; Studio Entertainment; Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products; and Direct-to-Consumer and International.

Disney is a Dow 30 company and had annual revenues of $55.1 billion in its Fiscal Year 2017. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Management believes certain statements in this release may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

These statements are made on the basis of management’s views and assumptions regarding future events and business performance as of the time the statements are made. Management does not undertake any obligation to update these statements. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied.

Such differences may result from actions taken by the Company, including restructuring or strategic initiatives (including capital investments or asset acquisitions or dispositions), as well as from developments beyond the Company’s control, including:

changes in domestic and global economic conditions, competitive conditions and consumer preferences; adverse weather conditions or natural disasters; health concerns; international, political, or military developments; and technological developments.

Such developments may affect entertainment, travel and leisure businesses generally and may, among other things, affect:

the performance of the Company’s theatrical and home entertainment releases; the advertising market for broadcast and cable television programming; demand for our products and services; expenses of providing medical and pension benefits; income tax expense; performance of some or all company businesses either directly or through their impact on those who distribute our products; and the pending transaction with 21CF.

Additional factors are set forth in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2017 under Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” in the Company’s Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 30, 2017 under Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” and subsequent reports. Media Contacts: Zenia Mucha (818) 560-5300David Jefferson (818) 560-4832 Investor Contact: Lowell Singer (818) 560-6601

: The Walt Disney Company Consents to 21st Century Fox’s Decision to Tender its 39% Stake in Sky

Did Rupert Murdoch sell Sky News?

Rupert Murdoch’s Sky reign to end as Fox sells all shares to Comcast Rupert Murdoch’s three-decade reign at Sky TV is to end after his company 21st Century Fox announced it would sell all of its shares in the British broadcaster to the US media firm,

1. The two companies had been locked in a bidding war for the satellite TV and broadband business, which culminated when tabled a knockout bid valuing the company at £30bn in a high-stakes auction on Saturday night.
2. Despite this there were suggestions that Fox could still choose to retain its minority stake in, possibly to frustrate Comcast’s efforts.

But on Wednesday the company announced it would instead cash in its shares and take about £12bn from Comcast for its 39% stake in the company. Comcast’s victory also means that almost two years of government scrutiny of whether Murdoch should be allowed to take control of Sky were ultimately for nothing – although the lengthy process did give Comcast enough time to move in and gazump the Fox bid.

1. When we launched Sky in 1989 it was four channels produced from a prefab structure in an industrial park on the fringes of west London,” said in a statement announcing its decision to sell their shares.
2. We bet – and almost lost – the farm on launching a business that many didn’t think was such a good idea.

Today, Sky is Europe’s leading entertainment company and a world-class example of a customer-driven enterprise. “This achievement would not have been possible without decades of entrepreneurial risk-taking and the commitment of thousands of colleagues, creators and dreamers.

For nearly 30 years we have invested to create a dynamic and exciting business that has produced excellent returns for shareholders and has become one of the most admired companies in Europe.” Although Murdoch is still currently in control of Fox, he has already agreed to sell most of its TV and film assets to Disney.

In reality it was Disney, rather than Murdoch, which had been guiding the bidding process for Sky in recent months and it is Disney that will receive the substantial proceeds from the sale of shares. The money could be a boost to Disney, which is planning to launch its own streaming service to rival Netflix and Amazon.

1. Murdoch’s departure from Sky marks the end of an era for the British media industry, although the 87-year-old media mogul will thanks to his newspaper holdings and,
2. Sky News will now be owned by Comcast, which already controls US news and media businesses including NBC and Universal Studios.
3. Although there has been no formal announcement on his future, the current Sky chairman, James Murdoch, is likely to leave the company when the deal is finalised.

Almost half of the current Sky staff also take part in the company’s share investment scheme, meaning they are looking forward to a financial windfall. “Nearly 30 years ago Rupert Murdoch took a risk to launch Sky and in the process changed the way we watch television forever,” said Jeremy Darroch, the Sky chief executive, who is on track to as a result of the sale.

How much of Disney does Murdoch own?

Rupert Murdoch reshapes media empire with $66bn Disney deal Rupert Murdoch has begun the breakup of his global media empire, announcing a $66bn (£50bn) deal with Disney to sell assets including his Hollywood film studio and a controlling stake in Sky.

• Disney is buying the bulk of Murdoch’s media and entertainment business, in a significant strategic withdrawal for the Australian-born mogul after 60 years of deal-making and expansion from newspapers into film and TV.
• Murdoch, as combative as ever at 86, insisted the move was not a retreat but a pivot to new business opportunities.

However, he is giving up the Fox film and TV studios responsible for the box-office blockbusters Titanic and Avatar as well as hits such as The Simpsons, cable channels including FX and National Geographic, a 39% Sky stake and India’s Star network. The deal marks a significant moment in Murdoch’s dynastic ambitions, as his younger son, James, 45, the chief executive of 21st Century Fox, has in effect been carved out of the line of succession after two decades with the business.

The elder son, Lachlan, 46, is left as executive heir to the remaining Murdoch empire, which includes the Fox News network, and newspapers including the Sun, Times and Wall Street Journal. Disney’s chief executive, Bob Iger, who has signed a contract extension to 2021 to oversee the takeover, said discussions were continuing about whether James Murdoch might join the company after the deal was completed.

If not, he is expected to leave Fox to set up his own venture, although either way the separation is viewed as an amicable one. Claire Enders, the chief executive of Enders Analysis, said: “It is a fundamental parting of ways between James and his father, the result over a period of time of the development of many differences between them that have become accentuated.

Fundamentally, Rupert believes his son has not made a great fist of running the entertainment assets. The issues of the past look to have cost James’s ambitions in the present again.” The all-stock deal will result in the Murdoch family trading control of 21st Century Fox for a 4.25% stake in Disney, which has reinforced its status as the world’s most powerful media brand.

“Are we retreating? Absolutely not,” said Rupert Murdoch in a conference call. “Those who know me know I am a news man with a competitive spirit. Fox News is probably the strongest brand in all of television. We are pivoting at a pivotal moment.” However, Lachlan Murdoch acknowledged that 21st Century Fox had hoisted the white flag in the sale to Disney, saying that “sometimes the right decisions are the hardest ones”.

1. Assets that are not part of the 21st Century Fox sale to Disney will be spun off as a separate business, called New Fox, which will include the Fox TV network, Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Sports and regional stations in the US.
2. Rupert Murdoch told Sky News that in two or three years he might look to merge New Fox with News Corp, the separately listed company that owns the book publisher HarperCollins and publishes Murdoch’s newspapers.

The deal allows Murdoch to focus on his first passion: newspapers. His global business grew from a single Adelaide paper that he took charge of aged 21 in 1952, following the death of his father. “The New Fox is about returning to our roots as a lean, aggressive, challenger brand,” Lachlan said.

• The deal will not, for now, affect the proposed takeover by 21st Century Fox of the 61% of Sky it does not own.
• The Competition and Markets Authority will continue to investigate the deal as a Murdoch-brokered takeover, pending Fox’s Sky stake officially changing hands.
• Disney signalled yesterday that it would not necessarily attempt to take over 100% of Britain’s largest pay-TV broadcaster if the media regulator quashed Murdoch’s bid.

Disney has said the deal for Fox, which will allow it to bring the Marvel superheroes X-Men, Fantastic Four and Deadpool into the hugely successful Marvel universe it already owns, will make it an entertainment powerhouse to take on rivals such as Netflix.

1. Iger has transformed Disney’s fortunes through a succession of deals, taking in Lucasfilm, which owns the Star Wars franchise, Marvel and Pixar, the studio behind Toy Story, which restored its reputation as the leading animation studio.
2. Disney has left its Hollywood rivals, including Murdoch’s 20th Century Fox, trailing in its wake, becoming the first studio to take $7bn in global ticket sales in a year in 2016.

Its revenues are further boosted by theme parks, merchandising operations and ownership of the US network ABC and sports broadcaster ESPN. Fox’s content will help build the attractiveness of the digital TV service it is launching in the US to take on Netflix.

Earlier this year, Disney announced it was pulling its films from Netflix US to compete with its own service from 2019. A sport version is also planned for ESPN. “Our direct-to-consumer relationship is vital to our media business and our highest priority,” Iger said in the conference call. “This deal is a very important move forward that reflects our strategic vision for the future.

become a more viable competitor.” Disney will also get Fox’s 30% stake in Hulu, taking its control of the US on-demand service to 60%. It is paying $52.4bn in stock, including $13.7bn in debt. The total value of the deal is $66bn. Disney said it expected the deal to be complete in 12 to 18 months and it would generate $2bn in cost savings.

• Tom Watson, the shadow culture secretary, said: “This is the end of an era for the Murdochs, who after 30 years of aggressive empire expansion are now in retreat.
• The decision to sell off key assets follows their UK business being engulfed in a phone-hacking scandal, and ongoing revelations about sexual harassment at Fox News in the USA – scandals which have been in sharp focus recently thanks to the Murdochs’ attempted takeover of Sky.” Follow Guardian Business on Twitter at, or sign up to the daily Business Today email,

: Rupert Murdoch reshapes media empire with $66bn Disney deal

Why is Sky called Sky?

Etymology – The word sky comes from the Old Norse sky, meaning ‘cloud, abode of God ‘. The Norse term is also the source of the Old English scēo, which shares the same Indo-European base as the classical Latin obscūrus, meaning ‘obscure’. In Old English, the term heaven was used to describe the observable expanse above the earth.

How many people work in Sky?

About us – With 24 million customers across six countries, Sky is Europe’s leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of the Comcast group. Our 32,000 employees help connect our customers to the very best entertainment, sports, news, arts and to our own local, original content.

• Following the success of Sky originals like Chernobyl, we plan to double our investment in original content by 2024.
• We’re also developing a new TV and movie studio, Sky Studios Elstree, which is expected to lead to the creation of over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in UK creative sector in the first five years alone.

Our technology allows Sky customers to watch what they want, when they want, how they want and connects millions of people to content they love. And our online streaming service, NOW, brings viewers all the enjoyment of Sky with the flexibility of a contract-free service.

We also believe that a company of our scale has a responsibility that goes beyond our business, and into the community. We recently announced a series of commitments to help tackle racial injustice and improve diversity and inclusion. To ensure the commitments are delivered, Sky will invest £10million per year across its markets for each of the next three years.

We’re committed to being Europe’s first net zero carbon entertainment company by 2030 – two decades before we have to – and we’re an inclusive employer recognised by The Times and Stonewall for our commitment to diversity. Industry Broadcast Media Production and Distribution Company size 10,001+ employees Headquarters Middlesex, England Type Public Company Founded 1989 Specialties Broadcast, Media, Entertainment, Communications, Innovation & Technology, Customer Service, and Entertainment

How many UK households have Sky?

Sky is already a valued part of everyday life in over 11 million homes. And you’ve just become one of them.

What brands does Murdoch own?

Rupert Murdoch AC KCSG
Murdoch in 2012
Born	Keith Rupert Murdoch 11 March 1931 (age 92) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Citizenship	Australia (until 1985) United States (from 1985)
Education	Worcester College, Oxford ( BA )
Occupations	Businessman media proprietor investor
Years active	1952−2023
Known for	Chairman and CEO of News Corporation (1980–2013) Executive chairman of News Corp (2013–2023) Chairman and CEO of 21st Century Fox (2013–2015) Executive co-chairman of 21st Century Fox (2015–2019) Acting CEO of Fox News (2016–2018) Chairman of Fox News (2016–2019) Chairman of Fox Corporation (2019–2023)
Board member of	News Corp Fox Corporation
Spouses	Patricia Booker ​ ​ ( m.1956; div.1967) ​ Anna Maria Torv ​ ​ ( m.1967; div.1999) ​ Wendi Deng ​ ​ ( m.1999; div.2013) ​ Jerry Hall ​ ​ ( m.2016; div.2022) ​
Children	6, including Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan, and James
Parents	Keith Murdoch Elisabeth Greene
Relatives	Ivon Murdoch (uncle) Patrick John Murdoch (grandfather) Walter Murdoch (grand-uncle)
Family	Murdoch family
Awards	Companion of the Order of Australia (1984)
Notes
^ Australian citizenship lost in 1985 (under S17 of Australian Citizenship Act 1948 ) with acquisition of US citizenship.

Keith Rupert Murdoch AC KCSG ( MUR -dok ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate, media proprietor, and investor. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including in the UK ( The Sun and The Times ), in Australia ( The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, and The Australian ), in the US ( The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post ), book publisher HarperCollins, and the television broadcasting channels Sky News Australia and Fox News (through the Fox Corporation ).

He was also the owner of Sky (until 2018), 21st Century Fox ( until 2019 ), and the now-defunct News of the World, With a net worth of US$21.7 billion as of 2 March 2022, Murdoch is the 31st richest person in the United States and the 71st richest in the world according to Forbes magazine. After his father ‘s death in 1952, Murdoch took over the running of The News, a small Adelaide newspaper owned by his father.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Murdoch acquired a number of newspapers in Australia and New Zealand before expanding into the United Kingdom in 1969, taking over the News of the World, followed closely by The Sun, In 1974, Murdoch moved to New York City, to expand into the US market; however, he retained interests in Australia and the UK.

In 1981, Murdoch bought The Times, his first British broadsheet, and, in 1985, became a naturalized US citizen, giving up his Australian citizenship, to satisfy the legal requirement for US television network ownership. In 1986, keen to adopt newer electronic publishing technologies, Murdoch consolidated his UK printing operations in London, causing bitter industrial disputes.

His holding company News Corporation acquired Twentieth Century Fox (1985), HarperCollins (1989), and The Wall Street Journal (2007). Murdoch formed the British broadcaster BSkyB in 1990 and, during the 1990s, expanded into Asian networks and South American television.

1. By 2000, Murdoch’s News Corporation owned more than 800 companies in more than 50 countries, with a net worth of more than $5 billion.
2. In July 2011, Murdoch faced allegations that his companies, including the News of the World, owned by News Corporation, had been regularly hacking the phones of celebrities, royalty, and public citizens.

Murdoch faced police and government investigations into bribery and corruption by the British government and FBI investigations in the US. On 21 July 2012, Murdoch resigned as a director of News International, In September 2023, Murdoch announced he would be stepping down as chairman of Fox Corp.

Is succession based on Murdoch?

Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: Getty, HBO Say what you will about Waystar Royco’s ATN — “Human furniture. Verbal assaults. Physical humiliation. Nazi stuff. Shooters. I just don’t love it,” — but the network never settled a massive election-fraud lawsuit at the last minute, then fired its biggest star with no explanation.

These recent plot twists came from Fox News, though they certainly feel like something that could have happened on Succession, That’s partly because the Succession writers were experts at satirizing our supremely weird media and political climate, and partly because the HBO show drew heavily on the business and family drama surrounding real-world media titans — especially Rupert Murdoch,

(One key difference: Murdoch just unexpectedly announced that he’ll step down as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corp, while his TV counterpart Logan Roy never actually followed through on a succession plan.) Series creator Jesse Armstrong has always emphasized that the Roys are fictional and no one family ” unlocks ” the show.

This is clearly true. But we’re still rabidly curious about the actual people behind TV’s most lovable awful billionaires — especially after learning that Murdoch’s ex-wife Jerry Hall was banned from giving the Succession writers ideas in her divorce settlement. Here’s a guide to all of the show’s references to real-world dysfunctional dynasties.

• Poor succession planning: Logan Roy and Rupert Murdoch are both aging conservative media titans who encourage their children to compete to be their successor, though they seemingly have no intention of ever dying, let alone retiring. Murdoch eventually did step down as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corp, turning over the reins to his son Lachlan, but Logan ultimately waited too long,

• Foreign roots: Murdoch was born in Australia and became a U.S. citizen in 1985 in order to buy a network of American TV stations. Roy was born in Scotland and became an American citizen later in life. (Brian Cox revealed that his character was originally an American born in Quebec, but the writers changed his birthplace to Scotland in episode nine.) • Old newsmen: Both men got their starts in newspapers and grew their businesses into colossal media conglomerates (Waystar Royco is the fifth-largest pre-GoJo acquisition; post-Disney deal, Fox Corporation is the tenth largest ).

Roy is the more self-made of the two; he grew up in poverty and was “raised in Quebec by an uncle with a print shop and a few advertising billboards,” according to Frank Vernon’s birthday toast. Murdoch went to Oxford and inherited a chain of Australian newspapers from his father at 22.

Health scares: Roy, 84, and Murdoch, 92, have both faced multiple health challenges. Logan suffered a brain hemorrhage, became delirious due to a UTI, and finally (spoiler alert) collapsed in an airplane bathroom and died. Gabriel Sherman summarized Murdoch’s recent health struggles in Vanity Fair ‘s May 2023 cover story : COVID was only the most recent medical emergency that sent Murdoch to the hospital.

In recent years, Murdoch has suffered a broken back, seizures, two bouts of pneumonia, atrial fibrillation, and a torn Achilles tendon, a source close to the mogul told me. Many of these episodes went unreported in the press, which was just how Murdoch liked it.

Complicated family trees: Roy has been married three times and has four children: Connor, Kendall, Roman, and Siobhan. Murdoch has been married four times and has six children: Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan, James, Grace, and Chloe. • He’s always watching: In Vanity Fair, Sherman reports that when Murdoch’s ex-wife Jerry Hall “settled into the Oxfordshire home she received in the divorce, she discovered surveillance cameras were still sending footage back to Fox headquarters.” Her other ex, Mick Jagger, “sent his security consultant to disconnect them.” On Succession, after Greg confesses to having a sexual encounter in a guest room at Logan’s apartment Tom tells him that his great-uncle has security cameras place throughout his home.

“You’ve accidentally made him a sex tape,” says Tom. • Lavish old-man birthdays: Logan’s 80th birthday party in the pilot was strikingly similar to Murdoch’s 78th birthday party — in Jesse Armstrong’s imagination, at least. Here’s how Forbes described Armstrong’s unproduced screenplay Murdoch, which landed on the Hollywood Black List in 2010: A work of imagined history in the manner of “The Queen” or “W,” “Murdoch” takes place over the course of a single day, the Australian-born mogul’s 78th birthday.

• His third wife, Wendi, has organized a surprise party.
• Murdoch uses the occasion to make a request of his four adult children: that they agree to alter the terms of the family trust to give his two young daughters from his third marriage voting rights.
• The children – James, Elisabeth, Lachlan and Prudence – discuss and argue over the request, scheme against each other, form alliances and repeatedly get manipulated by their father.

Ultimately, they reject his appeal, each for his or her own reasons. • Fake family therapy: Rupert subjected his family to faux counseling sessions, just like Logan. The New York Times Magazine reported in 2019: Murdoch tried to manage the tensions, arranging for group therapy with his children and their spouses with a counselor in London who specialized in working with dynastic families.

• There was even a therapeutic retreat to the Murdoch ranch in Australia.
• But these sessions provided just another forum for power games and manipulation.
• Sounds like the Murdochs needed a fun “family therapy” chant.
• Paper podiums: The Waystar CEO’s speech from a makeshift printer-paper podium in season four is a clear nod to Murdoch’s December 2007 address to the Wall Street Journal newsroom shortly after he purchased the paper.

The only differences are that Logan stood on blue Hammermill paper boxes while Rupert used green Boise paper boxes, and his speech was far less rousing, Photo: Mark Lennihan/AP/Shutterstock • Big business moves: Roy’s two major maneuvers in his later years are basically a copy of Murdoch’s — except Rupert survived to see his deals go through.

1. Roy’s long pursuit of Pierce Global Media mirrors Murdoch’s 2007 purchase of Dow Jones & Company from the Bancroft family.
2. When he died, Logan was on the verge of selling most of his business empire to the tech company GoJo, keeping ATN for himself.
3. In 2017, Murdoch sold most of his entertainment assets off in a $71.3 billion deal with Disney.

He kept Fox Corp and made his oldest son, Lachlan, CEO. • Father-son testimony: Several scenes from Kendall and Logan’s testimony before Congress on the cruise division scandal are almost word-for-word recreations of moments from Rupert and James Murdoch’s 2011 testimony before a committee of the British Parliament on the News Corp.

• Phone-hacking scandal.
• For example, Murdoch said in his testimony, “I would just like to say one sentence.
• This is the most humble day of my life.” Roy told the Senate, “When I read of the abuses of power alleged in my cruise division, well, that was the worst day of my life.” • The excluded eldest: Like Connor, Prudence is Murdoch’s only child from his first marriage.

In his 2008 biography The Man Who Owns the News, Michael Wolff described her as the “only one of his children not directly competing for his business affections,” and the “Murdoch-family wing nut.” Better a wing nut than the ” first fucking pancake,” • The forgotten sibling: The Roys constantly overlooking Connor feels like a made-for-TV gag.

But it may have been inspired by Murdoch publicly snubbing Prudence, referring to “my three children” in a 1997 press conference. Prudence said in an interview that this sparked “the biggest row I’ve ever had with my father.” • Number-one boy: Though Kendall is Logan’s second eldest child, it seems he is modeled after Murdoch’s youngest son.

James Murdoch was his father’s heir apparent for many years and was known as “the smart one,” though Michael Wolff said, “It may not be so much his father that he’s emulating as some generic idea of the advanced business figure.” Similarly, Kendall’s corporate-bro vibes may be stronger than his actual business acumen.

1. Despite serving in various top roles within News Corp.
2. For two decades (and even doing a stint in Hong Kong, like Kendall’s exile in Shanghai), he ultimately was not chosen as his father’s successor.
3. When Rupert sold off much of his company to Disney, Lachlan was selected to lead the remaining bits and there was no role for James, though he still made billions from the deal.

• Political protests: James has aligned himself with liberal causes in recent years. In 2017, he wrote a letter emphasizing that “there are no good Nazis” in response to Donald Trump’s Charlottesville remarks. In 2020, he donated to several Democratic presidential candidates including Joe Biden, then resigned from the board of News Corp., citing “disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions.” Kendall has also let it be known, a bit less eloquently, that he does not share his father’s political views.

Personal grudges: As with Kendall and Logan, it seems the strife between James and Rupert goes much deeper than a business disagreement. The New Yorker reported in 2019: James did not want to comment on his relationship with his father, but said that they’d seen each other recently at a corporate board meeting.

Asked whether the two talk, he said, “There are periods of time when we do not.” • Hip-hop fandom: James dropped out of Harvard in 1995 to found the hip-hop record label Rawkus Records with his college friends. He later sold the company to News Corp. and Rupert never got his “L to the OG”–style tribute.

1. Corporate speak: While it’s hard to imagine any real-life business executive uttering Kendallisms like, “I think Vaulter is the shiz,” one of James’s business acquaintances told the Times, “He expresses himself.
2. He swears if he needs to; he gets aggro.” • New-media meltdowns: Speaking of Vaulter, it is clearly modeled after Vice Media.

“From the unhinged headlines it publishes, to the Cool Open-Floor Office Space it occupies, to the brash founder who runs it, there’s a lot about Vaulter that hits disturbingly close to home,” Vice noted in 2019. (Vaulter also features some elements of Gawker and BuzzFeed, and its exterior was filmed at New York Magazine’s old office).

• James Murdoch joined Vice’s board in 2013 after Fox acquired a 5 percent stake in the scrappy digital-media company.
• If the shoe fits: Jeremy Strong told The New Yorker that he used some details about James from Wolff’s Murdoch biography to prepare to play Kendall.
• Strong tied his shoes extremely tight during his audition because he read that’s what James does, which told Strong something about the Murdoch son’s “inner tensile strength.” • Bro code: The competitive relationship between Kendall and Roman seems modeled after Lachlan and James.

Here’s how the Times described their dynamic: Over the years, Lachlan and James had traded roles, more than once, as heir apparent and jilted son. It was no secret to those close to the family that Murdoch had always favored Lachlan. (“But I love all of my children,” Murdoch would say when people close to him pointed out his clear preference for Lachlan.) • Ulterior motives: While Lachlan is not an immature court jester like Roman, the Times reported that James felt “his brother was mainly interested in the unique fringe benefits and trappings of power that came with the job.” Meanwhile, Lachlan “chafed at James’s fixation on corporate governance, which he felt was inconsistent with the company’s swashbuckling spirit.” • “Little Lord Fuckleroy”: Rupert made Lachlan general manager of one of his Australian newspaper chains when he was just 22, but the Times reported his “rise was cut short after he clashed repeatedly with seasoned executives who viewed him as an entitled princeling.” Similarly, Roman sparred with other executives at Waystar Studios because his tastes are too refined for the likes of The World’s Biggest Turkey,

• Two brothers, one job: Lachlan spent many years running his own businesses in Australia as James worked to position his father’s company for the digital future, much like Kendall. When Lachlan returned to the company in 2015, Rupert gave his sons dueling titles; Lachlan became executive co-chairman and James was promoted to CEO.

Kendall and Roman also have an uncomfortable power-sharing arrangement, with Kendall serving as interim CEO and Roman taking COO. • Corporate vision: The awkwardness of the Murdoch sons having overlapping roles was exacerbated by their differing visions for their father’s company, as the Times explained : James and Lachlan were very different people, with very different politics, and they were pushing the company toward very different futures: James toward a globalized, multiplatform news-and-entertainment brand that would seem sensible to any attendee of Davos or reader of The Economist ; Lachlan toward something that was at once out of the past and increasingly of the moment — an unabashedly nationalist, far-right and hugely profitable political propaganda machine.

1. This mirrors Kendall’s more conventional “strategy of a thousand lifeboats,” which entails having a hand in multiple media businesses, and Roman’s openness to promoting fascist Republican presidential candidate Jeryd Mencken.
2. Daddy’s girl: Like Shiv, Elisabeth originally pursued a career that was independent from her father’s empire (or independent for a nepo baby ).

In 1994, when she was just 26, Elisabeth persuaded her father to “help her do something on her own” and he suggested “that television stations are a good bet,” Michael Wolff wrote in Vanity Fair, Elisabeth and her first husband bought two California NBC affiliates for $35 million with a bank loan facilitated by her father.

• Management-training program: Elisabeth later took the number-two position at BSkyB, a London-based satellite-TV provider controlled by News Corp.
• Just as Waystar executives did not take Shiv seriously, Elisabeth clashed with BSkyB CEO Sam Chisholm, who referred to her as a “management trainee.” When Chisholm resigned in 1997, Murdoch decided not to give the top job to his daughter.

• Making her own pile: In March 2001, Elisabeth founded her own production company, Shine Limited (BSkyB owned 5 percent and agreed to buy a certain amount of Shine programming for two years). The company helped create successful shows like MasterChef and Chernobyl,

1. Elisabeth sold Shine to her father’s company in 2011 for $674 million and was set to join her brothers on News Corp.’s board (she later withdrew ).
2. A group of News Corp.
3. Shareholders sued over the deal, accusing Murdoch of “paying for nepotism.” • Unwieldy empires: When laying out her vision for Waystar Royco’s future, Shiv muses, “We make video-game consoles.

Why? We make indie fucking movies? Why?” The answer is probably that the company is partly based on the late Sumner Redstone’s sprawling media empire. Redstone started out with a theater chain, National Amusements, that he inherited from his father, and the company eventually acquired ViacomCBS, which owned everything from Simon & Schuster to Blockbuster Video to an amusement-park chain.

Redstone even made a costly bet on a video-game company, Midway Games. • Debt problems: Jesse Armstrong said the $3 billion debt crisis Kendall is faced with in season one was inspired by Redstone being forced to sell more than $200 million in nonvoting Viacom and CBS shares in 2008 to meet the terms of a big bank loan.

• Brother’s buyout: While Sumner Redstone was “rough on everyone around him,” he “was particularly brutal on his offspring,” according to Fortune, His son Brent and daughter Shari both worked for him and assumed they’d take over his business someday, but their relationship fractured over succession issues.

Per Fortune : With a divorce settlement under discussion with Phyllis, Sumner began pressuring his children to give him voting control over their stakes in National Amusements. After Shari agreed but Brent refused, their father began treating Shari “with extreme favoritism,” while freezing him out of the business and ousting him from the Viacom board, Brent would later claim.

Sumner struck a deal with his wife and daughter in 2002 that allowed him to maintain control of his company, and set up Shari as his successor. Brent filed a lawsuit that was settled when Sumner bought out his shares for a reported $240 million, and the two stopped speaking.

1. That’s cold, but at least Sumner didn’t send him the offer in a birthday card that said “CASH OUT AND FUCK OFF.” • Dad’s dithering: The family drama didn’t end there.
2. Sumner and Shari began publicly feuding in 2007, following reports that Sumner was reconsidering the plan to make Shari his successor.

Fortune notes he “seemed constitutionally incapable of sticking with any plan that envisioned his departure (much less his demise),” which certainly sounds like Logan. Redstone publicly “blasted” Shari in a ” harshly worded letter ” to Forbes that sounds downright cordial if you’re used to hearing the Roys tell each other to “fuck off.” (Sample line: “While my daughter talks of good governance, she apparently ignores the cardinal rule of good governance that the boards of the two public companies, Viacom and CBS, should select my successor.”) While Shiv and Logan were still estranged at the time of his death (despite what she tells the Waystar suits) Shari and Sumner reconciled well before his death in April 2020.

• She is currently non-executive chairwoman of Paramount Global and president of National Amusements.
• Competency questions: Ongoing questions about whether Logan was healthy enough to continue leading Waystar, particularly in season one, mirror the final years of Sumner’s life.
• His 90s were dominated by legal battles over his capabilities, and he stepped down from his chairmanship of CBS and Viacom in 2016 under pressure from shareholders.

Fortune ‘s assessment of the situation in 2016 could serve as an epitaph for Logan, too: In the end, Redstone’s corporate affairs fell into disarray because he stubbornly refused to put his house in order — scoffing at succession plans, appointing pliant boards, and running his $40 billion enterprise like a family grocery store.

• Foul-mouthed moguls: One detail from a 2018 Wall Street Journal piece on Redstone’s final years feels very Logan Roy: To help him communicate, some people who recently have met with him say that he has an iPad loaded with snippets of his voice, connected to buttons for words or phrases including “yes,” “no” and “f—you.” • Final phone calls: As with Roman and Logan, British media mogul Robert Maxwell’s last interaction with his son was a heated phone call,

On November 4, 1991 Robert and Kevin argued on a call over an impending meeting with a bank about the mogul defaulting on £50,000,000 in loans. He skipped the meeting and went yachting near the Canary Islands, and the next day he was found dead in the Atlantic Ocean under mysterious circumstances.

1. Making a statement: On HBO’s Succession podcast, Jesse Armstrong cited Ghislaine Maxwell’s statement to the press following the death of her father as the inspiration for Shiv’s remarks following Logan’s death.
2. At the time, Ghislaine was just known as Maxwell’s “favored daughter,” as Armstrong noted.

Today she is serving 20 years in federal prison after being found guilty of five counts of trafficking and abusing young girls on behalf of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, • Old money: Michael Wolff’s description of the Bancroft family in his 2008 book sounds an awful lot like the Pierces; he calls them an “old-line Wasp family” and “an unwieldy lot of cousins who hardly knew one another and who had too much money and not enough ambition — and certainly not enough interest in the business that had been left them.” • Tragic twists: As we all know, Connor, not Kendall, was interested in politics from a very young age.

But one of the defining moments of the younger Roy’s life closely resembles the “Chappaquiddick incident,” one of the biggest scandals to ever hit an American political dynasty. In 1969, Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car off a bridge, killing passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. Kennedy claimed he dove back into the water and attempted to rescue Kopechne, but he did not report the incident to the authorities until the next morning, after her body was recovered.

In Succession, Kendall does drugs with a waiter Logan just fired, then drives off with him in pursuit of more drugs. The waiter swerves to avoid a deer and the car lands in water. Kendall, unable to save the waiter, says nothing and returns to his sister’s wedding.

Did Rupert Murdoch sell Sky News

Rupert Murdoch’s Sky reign to end as Fox sells all shares to Comcast Rupert Murdoch’s three-decade reign at Sky TV is to end after his company 21st Century Fox announced it would sell all of its shares in the British broadcaster to the US media firm,

• The two companies had been locked in a bidding war for the satellite TV and broadband business, which culminated when tabled a knockout bid valuing the company at £30bn in a high-stakes auction on Saturday night.
• Despite this there were suggestions that Fox could still choose to retain its minority stake in, possibly to frustrate Comcast’s efforts.

But on Wednesday the company announced it would instead cash in its shares and take about £12bn from Comcast for its 39% stake in the company. Comcast’s victory also means that almost two years of government scrutiny of whether Murdoch should be allowed to take control of Sky were ultimately for nothing – although the lengthy process did give Comcast enough time to move in and gazump the Fox bid.

When we launched Sky in 1989 it was four channels produced from a prefab structure in an industrial park on the fringes of west London,” said in a statement announcing its decision to sell their shares. “We bet – and almost lost – the farm on launching a business that many didn’t think was such a good idea.

Today, Sky is Europe’s leading entertainment company and a world-class example of a customer-driven enterprise. “This achievement would not have been possible without decades of entrepreneurial risk-taking and the commitment of thousands of colleagues, creators and dreamers.

For nearly 30 years we have invested to create a dynamic and exciting business that has produced excellent returns for shareholders and has become one of the most admired companies in Europe.” Although Murdoch is still currently in control of Fox, he has already agreed to sell most of its TV and film assets to Disney.

In reality it was Disney, rather than Murdoch, which had been guiding the bidding process for Sky in recent months and it is Disney that will receive the substantial proceeds from the sale of shares. The money could be a boost to Disney, which is planning to launch its own streaming service to rival Netflix and Amazon.

• Murdoch’s departure from Sky marks the end of an era for the British media industry, although the 87-year-old media mogul will thanks to his newspaper holdings and,
• Sky News will now be owned by Comcast, which already controls US news and media businesses including NBC and Universal Studios.
• Although there has been no formal announcement on his future, the current Sky chairman, James Murdoch, is likely to leave the company when the deal is finalised.

Almost half of the current Sky staff also take part in the company’s share investment scheme, meaning they are looking forward to a financial windfall. “Nearly 30 years ago Rupert Murdoch took a risk to launch Sky and in the process changed the way we watch television forever,” said Jeremy Darroch, the Sky chief executive, who is on track to as a result of the sale.

Does Murdoch own Disney

Rupert Murdoch reshapes media empire with $66bn Disney deal Rupert Murdoch has begun the breakup of his global media empire, announcing a $66bn (£50bn) deal with Disney to sell assets including his Hollywood film studio and a controlling stake in Sky.

1. Disney is buying the bulk of Murdoch’s media and entertainment business, in a significant strategic withdrawal for the Australian-born mogul after 60 years of deal-making and expansion from newspapers into film and TV.
2. Murdoch, as combative as ever at 86, insisted the move was not a retreat but a pivot to new business opportunities.

However, he is giving up the Fox film and TV studios responsible for the box-office blockbusters Titanic and Avatar as well as hits such as The Simpsons, cable channels including FX and National Geographic, a 39% Sky stake and India’s Star network. The deal marks a significant moment in Murdoch’s dynastic ambitions, as his younger son, James, 45, the chief executive of 21st Century Fox, has in effect been carved out of the line of succession after two decades with the business.

The elder son, Lachlan, 46, is left as executive heir to the remaining Murdoch empire, which includes the Fox News network, and newspapers including the Sun, Times and Wall Street Journal. Disney’s chief executive, Bob Iger, who has signed a contract extension to 2021 to oversee the takeover, said discussions were continuing about whether James Murdoch might join the company after the deal was completed.

If not, he is expected to leave Fox to set up his own venture, although either way the separation is viewed as an amicable one. Claire Enders, the chief executive of Enders Analysis, said: “It is a fundamental parting of ways between James and his father, the result over a period of time of the development of many differences between them that have become accentuated.

• Fundamentally, Rupert believes his son has not made a great fist of running the entertainment assets.
• The issues of the past look to have cost James’s ambitions in the present again.” The all-stock deal will result in the Murdoch family trading control of 21st Century Fox for a 4.25% stake in Disney, which has reinforced its status as the world’s most powerful media brand.

“Are we retreating? Absolutely not,” said Rupert Murdoch in a conference call. “Those who know me know I am a news man with a competitive spirit. Fox News is probably the strongest brand in all of television. We are pivoting at a pivotal moment.” However, Lachlan Murdoch acknowledged that 21st Century Fox had hoisted the white flag in the sale to Disney, saying that “sometimes the right decisions are the hardest ones”.

1. Assets that are not part of the 21st Century Fox sale to Disney will be spun off as a separate business, called New Fox, which will include the Fox TV network, Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Sports and regional stations in the US.
2. Rupert Murdoch told Sky News that in two or three years he might look to merge New Fox with News Corp, the separately listed company that owns the book publisher HarperCollins and publishes Murdoch’s newspapers.

The deal allows Murdoch to focus on his first passion: newspapers. His global business grew from a single Adelaide paper that he took charge of aged 21 in 1952, following the death of his father. “The New Fox is about returning to our roots as a lean, aggressive, challenger brand,” Lachlan said.

The deal will not, for now, affect the proposed takeover by 21st Century Fox of the 61% of Sky it does not own. The Competition and Markets Authority will continue to investigate the deal as a Murdoch-brokered takeover, pending Fox’s Sky stake officially changing hands. Disney signalled yesterday that it would not necessarily attempt to take over 100% of Britain’s largest pay-TV broadcaster if the media regulator quashed Murdoch’s bid.

Disney has said the deal for Fox, which will allow it to bring the Marvel superheroes X-Men, Fantastic Four and Deadpool into the hugely successful Marvel universe it already owns, will make it an entertainment powerhouse to take on rivals such as Netflix.

Iger has transformed Disney’s fortunes through a succession of deals, taking in Lucasfilm, which owns the Star Wars franchise, Marvel and Pixar, the studio behind Toy Story, which restored its reputation as the leading animation studio. Disney has left its Hollywood rivals, including Murdoch’s 20th Century Fox, trailing in its wake, becoming the first studio to take $7bn in global ticket sales in a year in 2016.

Its revenues are further boosted by theme parks, merchandising operations and ownership of the US network ABC and sports broadcaster ESPN. Fox’s content will help build the attractiveness of the digital TV service it is launching in the US to take on Netflix.

Earlier this year, Disney announced it was pulling its films from Netflix US to compete with its own service from 2019. A sport version is also planned for ESPN. “Our direct-to-consumer relationship is vital to our media business and our highest priority,” Iger said in the conference call. “This deal is a very important move forward that reflects our strategic vision for the future.

become a more viable competitor.” Disney will also get Fox’s 30% stake in Hulu, taking its control of the US on-demand service to 60%. It is paying $52.4bn in stock, including $13.7bn in debt. The total value of the deal is $66bn. Disney said it expected the deal to be complete in 12 to 18 months and it would generate $2bn in cost savings.

• Tom Watson, the shadow culture secretary, said: “This is the end of an era for the Murdochs, who after 30 years of aggressive empire expansion are now in retreat.
• The decision to sell off key assets follows their UK business being engulfed in a phone-hacking scandal, and ongoing revelations about sexual harassment at Fox News in the USA – scandals which have been in sharp focus recently thanks to the Murdochs’ attempted takeover of Sky.” Follow Guardian Business on Twitter at, or sign up to the daily Business Today email,

: Rupert Murdoch reshapes media empire with $66bn Disney deal