Last but not least: Wiretapping scandal will be expensive for Murdoch
The phone-hacking scandal in the United Kingdom is costing the U.S. media conglomerate News Corp. a great deal of money. The closure of the Sunday newspaper *News of the World* alone is expected to cost up to 91 million dollars.
In addition, there are further high costs for the complete takeover of the British television group BSkyB, which was ultimately called off under political pressure. This was announced by News Corp.
at the company's headquarters in New York on Wednesday. The media tour led by Rupert Murdoch suffered a five percent drop in profits compared to the same period last year to a bottom line of 738 million dollars due to the charges in the July to September quarter.
But what the newspaper business messes up, TV stations make up for. Because apart from the wiretapping scandal, business was pretty good. Turnover rose by seven percent to almost eight billion dollars. This is because the Group's own television channels in particular were able to record higher revenues thanks to the flow of advertising money. The film division with the studio 20th Century Fox also generated more money. The blockbuster was "Planet of the Apes: Prevolution" proved to be a blockbuster.
The newspaper division also includes the Sun and Times in the UK. In the USA, Rupert Murdoch took over the Wall Street Journal. As the founder of the company, he holds around 40 percent of the voting rights. Together with the shares of the allied Saudi prince Al-Walid bin Talal, he even has 47 percent of all votes on his side. Shareholders complained that Murdoch was exploiting this power and running the group like a family business.
