Murdoch renews focus on core business with BSkyB bid
News Corporation is looking to take advantage of the weak pound and low interest rates (and a potentially lighter touch regulatory environment) to purchase a remaining 61% stake in BSkyB.
Rupert Murdoch has learnt the lessons of an ill judged purchase of MySpace in 2005 and is instead setting his sights on consolidating his media empire by turning his back on the free for all internet to the profitable confines of sports and financial news, twin streams of content for which people remain prepared to pay.
The satellite broadcaster is central to this and continues to rake in a steady stream of subscription fees, epitomising the Australian’s approach of placing value on content produced by limiting access to subscribers only, whether in broadcast media or online.
The resulting fortress of content bristling with paywalls that is now emerging, most recently with the Times website and the wall Street Journal, points to an alternative world view at odds with the hitherto universal push to free content as evinced by the world wide web and, notably, the BBC.
BSkyB directors are calling on Murdoch to up his £12bn bid but if, as is likely, a higher deal is accepted News Corp could be in a position to share content more easily between different divisions such as Sky News and the Times.