For James Murdoch, his first day as chief executive of BSkyB this week cannot have been pleasant. He was obliged to spend it justifying himself in front of powerful financial institutions, many of whom deplore the fact that one of the top jobs in European media has gone straight to Rupert Murdoch's younger son. James will have made a special effort to placate Fidelity, which last month masterminded the ousting of Michael Green from his role as chairman of ITV, Britain's main terrestrial commercial broadcaster. The activists will probably not be able to mete out the same treatment to the young Murdoch, since his father controls 35.4% of BSkyB, Europe's biggest satellite broadcaster. But they will express their anger loudly at the firm's annual general meeting on November 14th. Rupert is BSkyB's chairman as well as, through News Corp, its biggest shareholder. Even so, the owners of the rest of the company doubted that he would dare to appoint James, who is only 30, to replace Tony Ball, BSkyB's successful and experienced former boss. Rupert has never before gone as far as to force a family member into the top job at a separately listed part of News Corp. Spencer Stuart, an executive-search firm, was brought in to produce a list of candidates for the job. But that was a fig leaf. The company's nomination committee rejected the headhunters' candidates and recommended only James. Investors' views, clearly, matter less than Rupert's desire to promote his children.
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