Murdoch replaces Jerome Seydoux, who is standing down after his French film company, Pathe, agreed to sell its 17% stake in BSkyB to the French media and utilities group, Vivendi.

Vivendi can expect to gain a presence on the board of BSkyB, but it was thought likely that Murdoch would grab the chairman's seat to prevent Vivendi gaining too much influence.

The French group also owns a 34% stake in Canal Plus, one of BSkyB's main European rivals.

Murdoch's News Corporation is the biggest shareholder in BSkyB, with 40%. Murdoch is said to be wary of conflicts of interest with Canal Plus.

His daughter, Elisabeth, is already chief of programming at BSkyB, and some of the company's minority shareholders have said they would have preferred an independent chairman.

BSkyB - which recently bought control of the Italian digital pay-tv firm, Stream - currently faces powerful challenges in the British market from ONdigital and a number of cable companies.