London, Sept 23: The chief executive of British satellite broadcaster BSKYB is to step down, the company said today, following reports that the son of media magnate Rupert Murdoch is being lined up for the post. Tony Ball, who has overseen a doubling of subscriber numbers since taking over in mid-1999, will not renew his existing contract, BSKYB said in a statement.

Ball will step down when a successor is appointed, "which is likely to be well before his current contract ends" in May next year, it added. The announcement appears to clear the path for the accession of James Murdoch, the son of Rupert Murdoch, whose news corporation company owns 35 percent of BSKYB.

Last week The Financial Times reported that the 30-year-old, who dropped out of Harvard to launch a hip-hop record label before later joining the family business, was set to replace ball.

The news sent BSKYB's shares falling amid concern that investors would not be pleased to see the relatively inexperienced younger Murdoch -- now head of News Corp's Asian Satellite Network Star Television -- imposed on them. BSKYB's shares climbed 0.6 percent to 625 pence in early trading today.

BSKYB's statement made no mention of any possible replacement for ball, who Rupert Murdoch hailed today as "one of the outstanding businessmen in Britain."

Under Ball, the broadcaster has seen its subscriber base expand to almost seven million people, with the potentially risky strategy of gambling on new digital television technology now starting to pay off handsomely. Bureau Report