Goodbye, Sky's tough guy

Good Times, Bad Times: The Business Personalities Of The Year

BSKYB has done more to revolutionise the watching habits of the nation than any other broadcasting phenomenon over the past 20 years.

And if Rupert Murdoch played the lead role, undoubtedly it was Sam Chisholm as his lieutenant who has made Sky the success it is today.

When Mr Chisholm arrived in 1990 to run an ailing Sky the company was losing pounds 14m a week. Few gave him much chance of success. Yet his brash, "in-yer-face" management style transformed Sky's fortunes, to the extent that this year it has announced annual profits of pounds 314m.

Mr Chisholm's favoured weapon was the British love of sport. The move cut across class divisions. Just as flats in the urban hinterland sprout Sky dishes to receive their fix of Premiership football action, so houses in the Home Counties subscribe for coverage of golf, cricket and rugby.

So it was a shock when Mr Chisholm announced this year that he would leave the company. His health has been a problem, but it would seem that the arrival of Mr Murdoch's daughter, Elisabeth, at Sky did most to precipitate his exit.

In the book Sky High, by Mathew Horsman, Mr Murdoch said: "Elisabeth thought that Sam would teach her everything, but he didn't. He tried to cut her out."

If that was so, it was an apt epitaph, fitting as it did with the brash, not to say occasionally brutal style of management espoused across the Murdoch empire - of which Sam Chisholm was a prime exponent.