Boardroom shakeup at Sky on the cards

Sky is planning a boardroom shakeup that would result in a large number of non-executive directors being cut in favour of increasing the number of executives on the board, according to a report in the Mail on Sunday.

The paper reports that the move would take place in order to allay continuing fears among shareholders that Rupert Murdoch has too much control over decision-making at the satellite TV operator. The situation came to a head recently when James Murdoch, Rupert's son, was appointed CEO. Rupert is the company's chairman.

The report says investors consider Sky's current board to be unbalanced because eight of the eleven non-executive directors have connections to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. An official announcement is apparently due "soon."