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January 23, 2011
Murdoch, as is well known, uses News Corps power, to menace any government that stands in the way of his commercial ambitions or offends his basically conservative agenda. People fear the Murdoch press, and for politicians such a fear is compounded by the fact that Murdoch's newspapers can help swing elections. The News of the World phone-hacking scandal in the UK, which is set to gather pace, could start to undermine that power.
Martin Rowson
Henry Porter in Rupert Murdoch and the future of British media in The Guardian outlines a scenario of media dominance in Britain that could well apply to Australia in the near future.
Referring to Murdoch's bid to buy 100% ownership of BSkyB. Porter says:
The emergence of Sky's market power would be problem enough if it just affected the television industry, but what makes it a defining moment for Britain is how the financial and industrial strength in television interacts with News International's dominance of the newspaper industry. The Times, Sunday Times, Sun and News of the World together constitute 37% of UK newspaper circulation.Moreover, this is an industry struggling to find a viable business model as circulations fall and advertising revenues shrink. Cross-media ownership was an electric issue even in an era of stable technology; at a time of transformative technological change, it has become toxic because NI's [News International] television strength can come to the rescue of print in a way no other newspaper group can match
He adds that once NI gets 100% ownership of BSkyB, it will simply add its newspaper titles to the subscription television bundle to be received online. NI is the fourth-largest advertiser in the UK. Its marketing heft and industrial strength in pay TV will thus support its newspapers and the rest of the industry will be slaughtered.
Porter adds:
There is a convergence of TV and online usage and attractively priced online newspapers available via Sky as part of carefully designed packages for individual consumers will be irresistible...the prospect by 2020 is of an enfeebled newspaper industry in which NI titles command more than half the circulation and revenues and a television industry in which coverage of current affairs beyond a diminished BBC will be sporadic, thin and partisan.
The inference is that News Ltd 's strategic plan in Australia is to acquire more of Foxtel.
The question for media regulators is that if phone hacking was widespread on a Murdoch newspaper, why should the government allow News International's parent company to own even more of the UK media landscape?
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The senior politicians in both political parties are scarred of Murdoch. Murdoch is their sun king and they frequent his court.
So they are muted in their criticism of his papers illegal surveillance by hacking into phones, using eavesdropping technologies and stealing documents.