Media Melee, Junior Division
The gloves are off. After months of insisting that there was no ill will between his family and rival media mogul Richard Li, Rupert Murdoch's son James has let loose. In an Aug. 27 speech in Scotland, James Murdoch, CEO of News Corp.'s Asian-satellite broadcaster, Star TV, loudly slammed the interactive broadcast of Li's Hong Kong Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW), calling it an ''English-language rehash of circa-1980s MTV.'' He also bashed it for originating its programming in London. Declared Murdoch: ''The emperor, I have to say, has no clothes.''
Prince James vs. Prince Richard has long had the makings of a royal feud. Earlier this year, Richard, son of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, bested Murdoch by acquiring Hong Kong's Cable & Wireless HKT. And the Lis had formerly sold Star TV, a major money-loser, to News Corp. for $1 billion. PCCW's broadband offering is in English in a region where few speak it. But the Lis are powerful in Asia, enjoying the support of China's elite. Publicly embarrassing them may earn Murdoch points in Britain or the U.S., but it won't help him much in Asia.
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