James Murdoch Is an Old School Media Executive, So Don’t Expect Big Changes at His Dad’s Empire

[Commentary] Rupert Murdoch agreed to hand over the CEO title at his company, 21st Century Fox, to his 42-year-old son James, pending board approval. But forget the family intrigue for a second — this is interesting because James now runs one of the biggest TV companies in the world, currently worth $67 billion. Twenty-First Century Fox owns Fox Broadcasting, FX, Fox News and 20th Century Fox film studio, all producing tons of content that feed into Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime and now Sony and Dish for their Web-TV bundle, and likely eventually Apple for its forthcoming Internet-TV service.

James is largely considered a very good operator, a classic technocrat. He works at a standing desk and rarely sits throughout the work day. He’s calm and considered and like most people of his generation is well aware of digital developments that are eating into established businesses like his own. But don’t expect major changes at Fox. James, despite his age and perhaps because of his resume, isn’t known as a major TV disruptor. In 2009, he was one of the key executives who convinced (some say forced) then-Hulu CEO Jason Kilar to add on a paid subscription service, Hulu Plus, despite Kilar’s initial objections, according to multiple sources. By choosing James, Rupert is finally rewarding him for his loyalty. James had stayed with the company, and, at least among the Murdochs, took the brunt of the blame for the hacking scandal that erupted at the company’s UK newspapers in 2011, which, in some ways, led to the splinter of Murdoch’s media empire in 2013. Whether that loyalty amounts to a clever vision for the future of Fox (and of TV) is still unclear.