Founded in 1990 by Rupert Murdoch through the merger of Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting, BSkyB is led by chief executive Jeremy Darroch. It is the UK’s largest pay-TV broadcaster, with 11 million customers.

BSkyB is 39.1% owned by News Corporation, but a bid to take over the rest of the company was withdrawn in July 2011 as the Murdoch family became embroiled in the phone-hacking scandal. The storm centred on News International, News Corp’s UK newspaper business.

In April 2012 Rupert Murdoch’s son James resigned as chairman of BSkyB, having been its chief executive till 2007. The current chairman is Nicholas Ferguson. James Murdoch is now the deputy chief operating officer of News Corp and is based in New York.

In addition to operating a multitude of pay-TV channels offering entertainment, news, films and sport, BSkyB offers broadband, WiFi, landline calls, high definition TV and 3D TV.

The company is based in Osterley, near Heathrow and has 22,800 employees in the UK and Ireland. As of last summer it had a market capitalisation of £11.47bn. Its 2012 summary financial statement put its revenues at £6.79bn and operating income at £1.24bn.

The News International phone-hacking scandal does not seem to have had a significant detrimental effect on Sky’s profitability or reputation. Sky’s strong holdings in sport are a significant factor in its continuing success, and recent revenues have been boosted by its acquisition of some Formula One rights from the BBC. Sky’s third quarter results reported pre-tax profit of £288m, down slightly from £307m for the same period in 2011. However, revenues rose to £1.72bn from £1.65 in Q3 last year. Sky added 48,000 customers in the period. Competition from internet services, such as film streaming outfits, has therefore yet to make a real dent in Sky’s performance.