A Window Into The Murdoch Empire

The likely future head of News Corporation, James Murdoch, is currently locking horns with Virgin's Richard Branson. The two are battling it out over the cable TV, fixed-line telephone, broadband, and mobile service markets in the UK. The George W. Bush of the Murdoch clan, James is the head of British Sky Broadcasting, a position considered by many as stepping stone to the numero uno spot (currently held by papa Rupert) of parent company News Corp.

As you may already know, News Corp. also owns Fox Soccer Channel. While James Murdoch is fending off Branson with one arm, he's having to take own Sentanta with the other:

[Setanta] broke BSkyB's 15-year monopoly on live broadcasting rights for England's top soccer league. Setanta will carry 46 games beginning next season on platforms including Freeview, a digital-terrestrial service begun in 2002 that's now in 9.3 million U.K. homes. BSkyB responded by offering soccer games on Freeview for the first time rather than requiring a full BSkyB subscription. "It broadens Sky's reach, but it risks undermining their existing structure of having control over the customer," says Miranda Carr, a media analyst at London stockbroker Teather & Greenwood, which has a "reduce" rating on BSkyB shares.

What this means for us here in the United State, I haven't a clue. But anything that breaks up Sky's EPL monopoly in Britain can't be a bad thing.

James Murdoch Fights Branson in Test of News Corp. Inheritance [Bloomberg]

-ac