BSkyB chief executive

James Murdoch
explains to Ray Snoddy
why he believes his new
strategy will work and
dismisses City scepticism

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JAMES MURDOCH

The long haul

W
hen 31-year-old James Murdoch takes his seat on an
RTS panel at this month’s International Conference
in London it will be a hugely symbolic moment. He
will be joining the top tier of the UK industry along-
side Charles Allen, chief executive of ITV, Mark Thompson,
director-general of the BBC, and Sir Christopher Bland,
former chairman of the BBC and current chairman of BT.
The occasion will be the first broadcasting industry outing
for Rupert Murdoch’s second son, 10 months after his con-
troversial appointment as chief executive of BSkyB amid an
outcry from some shareholders and allegations of nepotism.
“It is obviously a conference that has a lot of importance
to the industry here and I thought it was a good time frame
to do it and the agenda fits. As someone running a big UK
media company it is of real interest to me how the UK fits
into the global agenda,” Murdoch says.
What is clear is that by the
time the BSkyB leader climbs
on the RTS stage he will already Only occasionally,
the next four years to put matters right and return to a faster
rate of growth.
Murdoch believes the behaviour of the City, which does
not like nasty surprises, was an “outsize” reaction to a
“marginal” hit on profit rates, and it was certainly much
more extreme than BSkyB executives expected.
“We outlined a plan to take this business to a greater
scale than it is today, to continue to deliver substantial cash
flow and to go out and re-introduce this company to the
marketplace.
“We are going to continue to keep our eyes fixed on that
goal and making that a reality and not worry about one
quarter or one day,” he insists.
He is a quietly spoken, amiable, inquisitive young man
who can command a stage alone for a two-hour session
without autocue and with only the need for an occasional
glance at notes and nervous
twiddle with his roller pen.
Despite the flak, he demon-

when challenged,
be battle-hardened in his new strates a total command of
job. both his facts and his story.

does the traditional Murdoch

The defining moment came Only occasionally, when chal-
last month when the young lenged, does the traditional
Murdoch spent two hours set- Murdoch steel show through
ting out his medium and long- steel show through the the personable exterior.
term strategy for the satellite
broadcaster to City analysts, personable exterior First steps on the new road
followed by a further two-hour- But how well has he done so
long solo session with journalists. far since taking over as chief executive from Tony Ball last
The impact of what he said was immediate and shock- November?
ing. What had long been rumoured was now being spelled “We have made an enormous amount of progress. We
out – Sky subscriber numbers, though still impressive, were have started on a strategy to reverse the decline in the run-
heading for a plateau. rate of additional subscribers and I think we have positioned
The City wiped £2bn – or nearly a fifth – off the company’s this company incredibly well to go and tackle this next
value in a matter of hours. phase of growth and to do so profitably,” he explains.
Analysts homed in like heat-seeking missiles on the fact But don’t the dramatic changes in strategy now suggest
that the growth in the number of BSkyB subscribers was that the previous regime did not prepare well enough for
considerably lower than expected for the past two quarters what many saw as the inevitable slowing down of subscriber
and that something like £850m will have to be invested over growth?

12 September 2004 Television

12-13 Murdoch - Snoddy v3 2 8/8/04, 8:27 pm