James Murdoch says a combination of 21st Century Fox and Sky is needed to compete with the growing strength of Netflix, Amazon and Apple.
Speaking at RTS Cambridge, Murdoch said that a positive outcome to the six-month review announced by the culture secretary would demonstrate the UK was truly open for business post Brexit.
“We’re eager to provide Sky with access to the resources, reach, and creative sparks needed to keep pace against a new breed of competitors that now include some of the largest companies in the world, but none of whom have the local depth of investment and commitment to the UK and to Europe,” he said.
Throughout his speech Murdoch highlighted the international achievements made by Sky and Fox in the UK, Italy and India.
Much of the criticism of the prospects of Sky under Fox has centred around issues at Fox News including a highly publicised sexual harassment case.
“In a large organisation there’s always things that are going to go wrong and the question is how are you going to respond to them,” said Murdoch after his presentation. He said that at Fox News the key issue was not what are we going to do, but what are we going to do to react to them, then do it loudly, so we know that sexual harassment is wrong.
Earlier, Ofcom’s chief executive defended the regulator’s handling of advice on programming standards at Fox. Sharon White said each stage had been transparent on both the exact questions that had been set and the advice given.
Ofcom had advised the government not to launch a broadcasting standards investigation despite the sexual harassment issues and earlier phone hacking scandal at the now defunct News of the World.
Murdoch said 21st Century Fox should not be held to account on matters relating to a publication that had never been a part of the current business.
