Indiantelevision.com Team

(Updated on 14 July 2008 6:40 pm)
(14 July 2008 2:30 pm)

MUMBAI: Media scion James Murdoch has jumped ahead of his father Rupert Murdoch to claim the crown of most influential person in UK television in 2008.

UK newspaper The Guardian has published its list of the most powerful people in British television.

Rupert Murdoch, the paper notes, held the number one spot last year after snatching it back from BBC DG Mark Thompson - who held it for the previous two years - but slips back this year to number three.

James Murdoch, however, took the second spot in the overall MediaGuardian 100 power list, with Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page sitting at the top. Rupert was ranked fifth in the power list.

The paper notes that James' rise to the top comes off the back of his elevation to News Corp Europe and Asia chairman and CEO and BSkyB chairman.

The swap of the Murdochs at the top is a mark of the changing of the guard in one of the world's biggest media empires, with James now tipped to eventually take over his father's full $30 billion global media portfolio.

Even though James Murdoch is the most influential man in British TV, he has now also spread his focus to his father's UK newspaper portfolio and also to overseas TV, taking on pay-TV operators Star in Asia and Sky Italia in Italy, the paper says.

Thompson sees no move in his place in the TV top 10, holding steady at number two, despite the fact that the past year has not been kind to the BBC.

The lower than expected licence fee settlement led to the axing of 2,500 posts, while the corporation had its own fair share of TV deception scandals, from the "Crowngate" affair to the botched naming of the new Blue Peter cat.

Thompson's next year will be just as trying, with the debate raging about the future of public service broadcasting, the BBC's place in it, and whether the licence fee should be top-sliced to pay for non-BBC PSB content.

The BBC controller of fiction, Jane Tranter, is a new entry at number four on the TV list after a controversial omission from the MediaGuardian 100 last year.

Her enhanced role overseeing the UK pubcaster's drama, comedy and films output means she has never been more powerful, although this has led to criticism that she now has too great a say over what the nation watches.

ITV executive chairman Michael Grade slips two places to number five in the TV list after a torrid past 12 months for the commercial broadcaster that has seen its share price continue to slide, despite signs that Grade's programming-led recovery plan is starting to turn around ITV1's fortunes.

The departure of ITV director of television Simon Shaps, The Guardian notes, means he drops out of the list. His successor, Peter Fincham, is in eighth position in this year's TV list.

Fincham was at number seven on the TV list last year, but this was at the height of his power as BBC1 controller and before his resignation over the Crowngate affair. Having only taken over at ITV in May, Fincham still has a job to do turning the commercial broadcaster around.

BBC Trust chairman, Sir Michael Lyons, rises two places on last year's TV list in a reflection of his increasing presence in the regulatory job. Last year, Lyons was still very much the new boy, but a number of high profile reports on different aspects of the BBC's working - some better received than others - have led to his increased influence.

Simon Cowell enters the TV top 10 for the first time due to his increasing importance to ITV. As well as The X Factor, his own format Britain's Got Talent has also become a huge hit, with the final of series two picking up 14.4 million viewers - the commercial channel's biggest audience of the year to date.

Channel 4 CEO Andy Duncan is a new entry in the TV top 10 at nine, pushing aside his programming chief, Julian Bellamy, who drops out after being placed at 10 last year.

Virgin Media CEO Neil Berkett is also a new entry in the last spot in the TV top 10. Having taken up the job only in March, he still has a lot to prove, but has already taken part in talks with BSkyB to resolve the bitter dispute between the two, which saw the satellite firm's channels removed from UK cable TV last year because of a row over carriage fees.