LONDON (AFP) ? Pay-TV giant BSkyB was to announce strong results on Friday amid the phone-hacking scandal that forced News Corp. to abandon a takeover bid, a day after backing James Murdoch to remain as chairman.
Analysts said the annual figures will rub salt into the wounds that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. suffered when it had to call off its bid for the 61 percent of shares in the satellite broadcaster that it did not already own.
BSkyB was forecast to reveal an annual operating profit of £1.0 billion for the 12 months to the end of June, according to analysts' consensus forecast.
BSkyB this year reached its target of 10 million household subscribers, who pay monthly subscriptions to watch live English Premier League football and blockbuster films in high definition, and to use Internet and phone services.
But this year its financial success has been overshadowed by corporate governance issues -- specifically the scandal that shut down News Corp.'s News of the World tabloid which put James Murdoch's position under the spotlight.
The crisis led to calls for him to resign the chairmanship of BSkyB, which the 38-year-old son and heir apparent of Rupert Murdoch took up in 2007 after being chief executive for four years.
However, the BSkyB board on Thursday gave Murdoch its "unanimous support", a source close to the satellite broadcaster said.
"The role of the chairman was discussed at some length today and ultimately James Murdoch received the unanimous support of the board," the source told AFP after a BSkyB board meeting.
James Murdoch holds the position at BSkyB in addition to his activities as head of News Corp.'s European and Asian activities, or number three at the US-based group, where he is also chairman of its British newspaper arm News International.
His calm performance at his father's side in front of a parliamentary committee last week was tarnished when two former News of the World executives later accused him of misleading MPs over how much he knew about hacking.
Last year News Corp. announced plans to add to the 39 percent of shares it owns in BSkyB, purchasing the remaining stock for ?7.8 billion.
Despite BSkyB rejecting the 700-pence-per-share offer as too low and News Corp. facing opposition over the deal from media rivals on competition grounds, the Murdochs had been intent on capturing full control of the broadcaster.
But they dropped the offer on July 14 as lawmakers were about to pass a rare cross-party motion calling on Rupert Murdoch to do so, after the News of the World was accused of hacking voicemails of a murdered girl and families of dead soldiers.
BSkyB's share price meanwhile slumped from 850 pence to below the bid-offer of 700 pence in one week prior to the deal's collapse, knocking ?2.5 billion off the firm's value.
The hacking crisis has meanwhile claimed the jobs of two of Murdoch's closest aides, forced out two of Britain's top policemen and even rattled Prime Minister David Cameron.
At around the same time as news of the board's decision broke on Thursday, the mother of a murdered girl on whose behalf the News of the World had campaigned said she may have been targeted by a private investigator working for the paper.
Sara Payne, whose eight-year-old daughter Sarah Payne was killed by a paedophile in 2000, was "absolutely devastated" after police told her that her voicemail might have been hacked by the paper.
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