James Murdoch re-appointed Sky chairman

James Murdoch has survived an expected rebellion from shareholders and been re-appointed as chairman of satellite pay-TV giant Sky.

Various media outlets are reporting that Murdoch will continue as Sky chairman after being voted back on to the board by shareholders at the firm's annual meeting today in London.

However, just under 19% of Sky investors failed to back Murdoch's re-election, thought to be in protest of his handling of the phone hacking scandal at newspaper publisher News International.

According to initial figures released by Sky and reported by The AP, Murdoch won the support of 81.24% of shareholder votes, while 18.76% voted against him.

Murdoch is also chairman of News International, News Corporation's UK newspaper arm, and deputy chief operating officer at Rupert Murdoch's media empire.

He survived a major rebellion from shareholders against his membership of the News Corp board last month, but resigned as a director of News Group Newspapers last week

Several Sky shareholders had indicated their intention to vote against the 38-year-old, largely because they wanted an independent chairman not connected to the phone hacking scandal.

It was not expected, though, that Murdoch would actually be voted off the board because News Corp is the firm's largest shareholder, with a 39% stake.

Murdoch was highly regarded at Sky when he served as chief executive between 2003 and 2007, but his standing has diminished since News Corp withdrew its £8 billion takeover bid for the firm in the summer at the height of the hacking affair.

Despite not being in charge of News International when the phone hacking at the News of the World allegedly took place, Murdoch has been criticised for failing to realise the scale of the problem and for potentially having misled parliament about his knowledge of the illegal practice.

At the meeting today at the QEII Conference Centre in central London, Murdoch was greeted by protestors calling for him to resign as Sky chairman.

Campaigning group Avaaz staged a protest featuring demonstrators waving placards, wearing James Murdoch masks and shouting "Murdoch out".

Leading investors such as Kames Capital, which owns 1.7% of Sky, and Legal & General, which owns 2.9%, were understood to be among those who voted against the re-election of Rupert Murdoch's son.

Lobbying group Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (Pirc) also urged shareholders to oppose Murdoch's return over concerns that his connection to the hacking scandal could damage the firm by association.

Labour MP Tom Watson, a member of the Commons culture select committee and committed campaigner against the Murdoch empire, also attended the event.

Before the meeting, he told PA: "I'm going to ask about reputational harm to the company if they re-elect him, and also commercial risks for its products.

"He will be re-elected, but it will interesting to see if the figure voting against him rises from last year, when it was around 1.5%."