BSkyB made the initial announcement April 4, which was confirmed by a statement from Murdoch the next day. “As attention continues to be paid to past events at News International, I am determined that the interests of BSkyB should not be undermined by matters outside the scope of this company,” he said,

   Murdoch will remain a non-executive director of BSkyB, but has already stepped down from various positions within the News Corp. organization, including his roles as chairman of News Group Newspapers and executive chairman of the British newspaper division of News International.

   News Corp. has a 40 percent controlling stake in BSkyB. The company’s scandal prevented a proposed spin-off of Sky News into a separate publicly traded entity as part of a potential acquisition of BSkyB, which came under the review of the U.K. Competition Commission. A British parliamentary committee is scheduled to publish the results of News Corp.’s phone-hacking inquiry later this month.

   Enders Analysis Founder and CEO Claire Enders said that James Murdoch was widely seen as an effective chairman, but not effective enough to survive the company’s recent troubles. “It’s politically difficult to tell the future for BSkyB when the chairman of News International is connected with BSkyB and his name is Murdoch,” she said. “It’s really a question of the political climate.”

   Other analysts see Murdoch’s BSkyB resignation as a signal to renew pressure for his resignation from executive leadership at News Corp., where he remains a board member and deputy COO. “This ups the pressure on him to resign from News Corp.,” CtW Investment Group Analyst Michael Pryce-Jones said in a statement. “Angry shareholders will not wait for News Corp.’s next annual meeting in six months to renew their push for James Murdoch’s ouster.”

   BSkyB has yet to announce a replacement for Murdoch as chairman of the board.  BSkyB CEO Jeremy Darroch is currently leading plans to launch a new, over-the-top (OTT) Internet TV video service in the United Kingdom under the brand name Now TV.

   During an appearance on BBC earlier this month, Darroch said the company would primarily be focused on developing Now TV in the next few years. “I will be watching the subscription figures,” he said. “The bottom line is that BSkyB had to look to new markets. We also are planning to commit more resources specifically to our entertainment offerings. We will spend about 600 million pounds ($949.5 million) by 2014 on commissioning and producing U.K.-based content, which is a 50 percent increase in our current spending over the next three years.”