Television in the United Kingdom 4 Corp, according to BARB's viewing figures for January 2018. On 18 January 2011, then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt announced his intentions to set up a network of local television stations across the UK. The initial plan was to create a network of local television stations, connected through a national backbone. This plan would create a television network similar to that of the network-affiliate model in the United States and Canada. In June 2011, however, it was announced that the national spine plan would be scrapped, and a 'bottom-up' approach would be followed instead,
News media phone hacking scandal of millions of dollars. Rupert Murdoch endorsed Chase Carey as a future chief executive for News Corp. rather than his son James Murdoch, who had been viewed as the favourite to succeed Rupert. James resigned as Chairman of British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSkyB), distancing the company from the scandal at News International. James was harshly criticised by the UK Office of Communications (Ofcom), which concluded that he "repeatedly fell short of the conduct to be expected of as a chief executive and chairman" and that his lack of action in relation to phone hacking was "difficult to comprehend and ill-judged".