As if that were not enough, Sky has to make this difficult transition with a new management team the old guard having departed because of a mixture of poor health and irritation at Mr Murdoch's increasing interference, which has included installing his daughter, Elizabeth, as general manager.
Yet it is now in the invidious position of being a long-term manager of a large portfolio of state-owned properties with all the risks of political interference that this entails.
There will be no political interference, he insists, in its investments, which will be made by a private-sector manager (due to be appointed in December) in specialist venture-capital funds backing technology-based businesses.