News Corp. hangs onto its dual-class stock system

ByABC News
October 22, 2007, 8:30 AM

NEW YORK -- He told shareholders meeting here that a system with super voting shares giving him 39% of the company votes although his family owns about 15% of the equity promotes stability, long-term planning and needed risk-taking.

"Everybody knows where they stand when they buy News Corp. shares, or The Washington Post, or The New York Times, or a number of other companies" that have dual-class stock, he said.

Opponents say the system also enables some families to remain entrenched at companies that would benefit from change and new ideas.

The clash over voting rights provided a backdrop to a meeting where Murdoch shared several thoughts about his far-flung media empire. Among them:

Murdoch dismissed objections by a representative of the Parents Television Council to allegedly indecent programming during early-evening family-viewing hours in some time zones on episodes of Fox's The Family Guy and American Dad and FX's Dirt.

"People have a couple of hundred channels," Murdoch said. "They don't have to watch these things."

News Corp. President Peter Chernin added, "Unfortunately, children are exposed to lots of things. I'm frankly more concerned about them being exposed to the Internet than anything on television."

Murdoch had a cool response to attorneys general from Connecticut, Pennsylvania and other states who want MySpace.com to verify ages of its users to help prevent young fans from being victimized by older online predators.

"We've had ongoing talks" with some of the attorneys general, Murdoch said. But "It's impossible to guarantee age verification."

Murdoch says he isn't interested in MySpace rival Facebook, at valuations above $10 billion.