In July 2011, Murdoch faced allegations that his companies, including the News of the World, owned by News Corporation, had been regularly hacking the phones of celebrities, royalty, and public citizens. Murdoch faced police and government investigations into bribery and corruption by the British government and FBI investigations in the U.S.[7][8] On 21 July 2012, Murdoch resigned as a director of News International.[9][10] On 1 July 2015, Murdoch left his post as CEO of 21st Century Fox.[11] However, Murdoch and his family would continue to own both 21st Century Fox until 2019 and News Corp through the Murdoch Family Trust until 20th Century Fox itself was purchased by Disney.[12][13][14][15]
Murdoch's British-based satellite network, Sky Television, incurred massive losses in its early years of operation. As with many of his other business interests, Sky was heavily subsidised by the profits generated by his other holdings, but convinced rival satellite operator British Satellite Broadcasting to accept a merger on his terms in 1990.[5] The merged company, BSkyB, has dominated the British pay-TV market ever since pursuing direct to home (DTH) satellite broadcasting.[53] By 1996, BSkyB had more than 3.6 million subscribers, triple the number of cable customers in the UK.[5] Murdoch has a seat on the Strategic Advisory Board of Genie Oil and Gas, having jointly investing with Lord Rothschild in a 5.5% stake in the company which conducted shale gas and oil exploration in Colorado, Mongolia, Israel and, controversially, the occupied Golan Heights.[54]
Murdoch and rival newspaper and publishing magnate Robert Maxwell are thinly fictionalised as "Keith Townsend" and "Richard Armstrong" in The Fourth Estate by British novelist and former MP Jeffrey Archer.[170]
t was speculated that the character of Elliot Carver, the global media magnate and main villain in the 1997 James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies, is based on Murdoch. The screenwriter of the film, Bruce Feirstein, stated that Carver was actually inspired by British press magnate Robert Maxwell, who was one of Murdoch's rivals.[172
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch