James Murdoch reappointed as BSkyB director

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/22/james-murdoch-bskyb-agm

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James Murdoch has been reappointed as a director of BSkyB with the support of 96% of shareholders, as recent events including BT's Champion's League TV rights coup passed virtually without mention at the company's annual general meeting.

There was no repeat of the 2011 Sky AGM shareholder rebellion over Murdoch's handling of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, with Friday's meeting lasting just 20 minutes and producing a just a single question from the floor.

This may have been in part because the meeting was held in Edinburgh rather than London, attracting just a handful of shareholders.

Murdoch was opposed by just 3.9% of company shareholders who voted. A very small number, 0.2%, withheld their vote.

BSkyB chief executive Jeremy Darroch avoided a grilling over the ramifications of the loss of Champions League football from 2015 to BT Sport, a move which saw £1.6bn wiped off the satellite broadcaster's share price earlier this month.

Darroch was asked, rather politely, about the future plans for Sky Sports – BT was not mentioned.

He responded by arguing that Sky has the "strongest sport service in the UK" offering a huge breadth and depth of programming beyond football.

He highlighted coverage of the Ashes cricket series in Australia, ATP tour tennis finals, the autumn rugby internationals and the end of the 2013 Formula One and US golf seasons as examples of the expanse of content on this month.

Shareholders showed mild concern over BSkyB's remuneration report with 22.5% voting against it and 0.6% abstaining.

Shaereholder and advisory services including Pirc, ISS and Manifest had highlighted issues with the company's remuneration report, while the Association of British Insurers rated BSkyB a "blue top" in its report.

Darroch was paid a total package of £7m in the year to the end of June.

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