Rupert Murdoch's son James was expected to resign as chairman of satellite TV giant BSkyB on Tuesday after a tabloid phone-hacking scandal at his father's media empire, Sky News reported.
The post would be the last major position in Britain held by the 39-year-old, who has faced growing pressure over what he knew about the illegal accessing of voicemails at the now-closed News of the World newspaper.
Sky News said a BSkyB board meeting had been convened for later Tuesday after which James Murdoch would step down and be replaced by current deputy chairman Nicholas Ferguson.
The BBC reported that it was Murdoch's decision to leave the position, which he has held since 2007, and that he did so to prevent further criticism, although he has always denied any knowledge of phone-hacking.
BSkyB was not immediately available to confirm the reports, and a spokeswoman for Rupert Murdoch's US-based News Corporation, the largest shareholder in the broadcaster, declined to comment.
The news comes just over a month after James Murdoch stepped down as executive chairman of News International, News Corp's scandal-plagued British newspaper unit.
News Corp said Murdoch would remain its deputy chief operating officer and focus on international television operations.
Sky reported on Tuesday that James Murdoch would remain on the board of BSkyB as a director, a position that he was reappointed to in November at the company's annual general meeting.
The elder Murdoch shut down the News of the World in July last year amid public revulsion in Britain at the illegal accessing of the mobile phone voicemails of crime victims, celebrities and politicians.
As the scandal spiralled out of control, News Corp was forced to withdraw a $12 billion offer for the 61 percent BSkyB it does not already own.
After the news about Murdoch broke, shares in BSkyB were at 675.5 pence, down 0.81 percent on Monday's closing price.
News Corp had bid 700 pence a share in 2011, although this was rejected by the company as too low.
James Murdoch appeared twice before a British parliamentary committee last year as part of its investigations into phone hacking, and both times he denied knowing the practice was widespread at the News of the World.
In a statement to the media committee on March 14 he also denied that he had misled parliament but apologised for failing to uncover wrongdoing earlier.
"Whilst I accept my share of responsibility for not uncovering wrongdoing sooner, I did not mislead parliament and the evidence does not support any other conclusion," he wrote.
"Clearly with the benefit of hindsight, I acknowledge that wrongdoing should have been uncovered earlier."
The committee is expected to publish its report into the hacking scandal at the end of April, a spokeswoman said.
Until last year, the News of the World had maintained that hacking was limited to a single rogue reporter -- former royal editor Clive Goodman -- and private detective Glenn Mulcaire, who were both jailed in 2007.
But since then, News Corp has settled dozens of claims brought by victims of phone-hacking totalling millions of pounds.
Reports in Britain said Rupert and James Murdoch will be called to testify later this year before the separate, judge-led Leveson inquiry in Britain into the ethics of the press.
Source: AFP European Edition
