High-flying Sky James Murdoch rejoins as chairman

 Sky said James Murdoch, son of founder Rupert Murdoch, would take over as chairman, returning to the European pay-TV group as it reported a better-than-expected 12 percent rise in profit helped by a record number of new customers.

The company reported operating profit of 747 million pounds ($1.1 billion) on revenue up 5 percent to 5.7 billion pounds for the six months to end-December.

It said on Friday 337,000 new customers joined Sky in the second quarter, its highest UK and Ireland customer growth for 10 years.

Analysts were expecting operating profit of 727 million pounds, up 9 percent, according to a company-supplied consensus.