Later a headhunter explained privately that what had appeared to be the assignment from hell had turned out much better than expected. In an Edinburgh Television Festival lecture he publicly attacked the idea that English-language media companies could ever be truly global while ignoring world languages such as Mandarin, Hindi and Spanish. The young Murdoch had liked both the relative invisibility of Hong Kong and the opportunities it offered to indulge his interest in outdoor sports such as mountain biking.It was still a shock to all concerned – not least City investors – when it became clear that Rupert Murdoch was absolutely determined that the next chief executive of BSkyB, a publicly quoted FTSE 100 company, should be his younger son, then barely 30 There would have to be due process of course Headhunters would launch an international trawl. It was the first real sign that his father rated his management potential.When he left Asia for London nearly two years ago Star had moved into profit for the first time and James Murdoch had learnt some valuable lessons – among them the importance of other languages and cultures.

At the age of 28, James Murdoch was asked to run News Corp’s loss-making satellite television business in Asia – Star TV. With an eye to the longer term Rupert Murdoch, who has always been quite open about his dynastic ambitions, enticed him into the family business by playing to his interests – putting him in charge of News Corp’s modest involvement in the music industry and its uncertain grasp of the implications of the internet.It was in May 2000, four years after joining News Corp, that things started to get serious. Rather more significant in the longer term, James Murdoch had indeed become the most likely to succeed to the highest office within News Corp should he wish to do so. With first Elisabeth, and now Lachlan ruling themselves out, largely because they want to create something for themselves, it has suddenly become a one-horse race.Less than a decade ago not many would have put much money on the chances of the third child of Rupert Murdoch’s second marriage to Anna Murdoch being in his present position of growing corporate power. If anything, he had the mark, if not of the black sheep of the family then of the college dropout, even if the college was Harvard and he was known to be clever.

Instead of the corporate suit there was the beard, the eyebrow stud and the involvement with friends in Rawkus, a hip-hop record label.Yet if there ever was a rebellion against his possible fate and the need to establish an independent life then James Murdoch got it out of his system early. The reality is that all of his children will be very rich one day whether they are running News Corp or not. The family stake of around 30 per cent in the company that owns everything from the Fox film studio in Hollywood to the Fox News television channel and The Sun newspaper is already held in trust for them.Although he would never admit it in public, and perhaps not even in private, it has been a very good week for James Murdoch. BSkyB’s results were at the top end of City expectations and its share price rose. The two are close and almost certainly would have discussed the dilemma posed by trying to establish the right balance between corporate responsibilities, personal ambition and family life.It is, however, something that the adult Murdoch children would never discuss in public. They have said little on where they might reside on any succession pecking order or their relationships with their father, and, indeed, the image of siblings battling it out for the favours of the great man is largely a media creation.