21st Century Fox international chief tells conference it has no plans to mount new bid to take full control of BSkyB
James Murdoch has said he has no intention of making another £8bn-plus bid to take full control of BSkyB, but admitted that discussions have been held with shareholders about how to consolidate the Sky pay-TV businesses across Europe.
News Corporation was forced to give up on a bid to take full control of BSkyB in 2011, and Murdoch relinquished his chairmanship of BSkyB and its UK newspapers and move to the US in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal.
"We have no intention of bidding for the rest of BSkyB today or in the near future, we have no plans about that," he said in an interview at Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference in the US on Monday night. "And we have no plans to divest."
However, Murdoch said that he is not "complacent" about his company's 39.1% stake in Sky, admitting that partial ownership – even though it is the largest shareholder – is "not optimal" and there is a need to "resolve" the company's pay-TV strategy across Europe.
Following the split of News Corp last month, Murdoch holds the post of chief executive of international at film and TV company 21st Century Fox, which includes the 39.9% holding in BSkyB as well as full ownership of Sky Italia and 54.5% of Sky Deutschland.
"I think our strategy a number of years ago, which was to say, 'Listen, we should consolidate these businesses, they should be part of one business or at least be one business', the industrial logic is still very much there for that," he said. "I've spoken to a lot of our shareholders about this, it's important for them to understand as well that we're not complacent about this. Clearly the status quo is not optimal, and we need to figure this out."
Questioned further, Murdoch said that he "couldn't possibly say" whether one option might be that someone else other than his father Rupert Murdoch and 21st Century Fox own the three pay-TV businesses.
Murdoch also admitted that it had been a steep learning curve since the phone-hacking scandal broke, and that a key lesson was the value of "grit" and that "perseverance counts for everything".
"So I learned a lot about myself and about that, but also about business and about how businesses do things wrong, and how businesses get things wrong, how they take some things for granted, and so on," he said. "And we've really improved our companies, both companies now enormously, having gone through that process, and I think it's really been an important process for us to really improve systems, governance, all of that sort of business."
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James Murdoch has said he has no intention of making another £8bn-plus bid to take full control of BSkyB, but admitted that discussions have been held with shareholders about how to consolidate the Sky pay-TV businesses across Europe.
News Corporation was forced to give up on a bid to take full control of BSkyB in 2011, and Murdoch relinquished his chairmanship of BSkyB and its UK newspapers and move to the US in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal.
"We have no intention of bidding for the rest of BSkyB today or in the near future, we have no plans about that," he said in an interview at Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference in the US on Monday night. "And we have no plans to divest."
However, Murdoch said that he is not "complacent" about his company's 39.1% stake in Sky, admitting that partial ownership – even though it is the largest shareholder – is "not optimal" and there is a need to "resolve" the company's pay-TV strategy across Europe.
Following the split of News Corp last month, Murdoch holds the post of chief executive of international at film and TV company 21st Century Fox, which includes the 39.9% holding in BSkyB as well as full ownership of Sky Italia and 54.5% of Sky Deutschland.
"I think our strategy a number of years ago, which was to say, 'Listen, we should consolidate these businesses, they should be part of one business or at least be one business', the industrial logic is still very much there for that," he said. "I've spoken to a lot of our shareholders about this, it's important for them to understand as well that we're not complacent about this. Clearly the status quo is not optimal, and we need to figure this out."
Questioned further, Murdoch said that he "couldn't possibly say" whether one option might be that someone else other than his father Rupert Murdoch and 21st Century Fox own the three pay-TV businesses.
Murdoch also admitted that it had been a steep learning curve since the phone-hacking scandal broke, and that a key lesson was the value of "grit" and that "perseverance counts for everything".
"So I learned a lot about myself and about that, but also about business and about how businesses do things wrong, and how businesses get things wrong, how they take some things for granted, and so on," he said. "And we've really improved our companies, both companies now enormously, having gone through that process, and I think it's really been an important process for us to really improve systems, governance, all of that sort of business."
• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email media@guardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook Reported by guardian.co.uk 14 hours ago.
