James Murdoch to quit BSkyB

James Murdoch is expected to resign as chairman of British satellite TV giant BSkyB on Tuesday after a tabloid phone-hacking scandal at his father Rupert's media empire, Sky News reported. Sky News said a board meeting had been convened for later Tuesday at which the 38-year-old would officially step down, following months of pressure from shareholders in the pay-television broadcaster. BSkyB was not immediately available to confirm the report, and a spokeswoman for Rupert Murdoch's US-based News Corporation, the largest shareholder in the broadcaster, declined to comment. It comes just over a month after James Murdoch stepped down as executive chairman of News International, News Corp.'s scandal-plagued British newspaper unit, over phone hacking at the News of the World tabloid. 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. Sky reported 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. 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. News Corp. has settled dozens of claims brought by victims of phone-hacking totalling millions of pounds.