Rupert Murdoch's media empire, still struggling with the crisis over telephone hacking by its journalists at News International, is facing fresh allegations that it promoted pay TV piracy to cripple a rival broadcaster in Britain.
Two former senior British policemen, a Metropolitan Police commander Ray Adams and a chief inspector with the Surrey police, Len Withall, are reported by the BBC's Panorama investigative program to have operated a piracy website that released codes to unlock programming for faltering pay TV company ITV Digital. ITV Digital collapsed in March 2002 with losses of more than  £1 billion, overwhelmed by mass piracy, as well as technical restrictions and expensive sports contracts. Its collapse left Murdoch-controlled BSkyB the dominant pay TV provider in the UK. |