The move was widely expected after Seydoux's French film company Pathe reached agreement earlier this month to sell its 17 per cent stake in BSkyB to French media and utilities group Vivendi. Seydoux becomes a nonexecutive director of BSkyB.

Vivendi owns a 34 per cent stake in Canal Plus, a European rival to BSkyB. The Pathe-Vivendi deal raised expectations that Canal Plus and BSkyB would resume merger talks that broke off earlier this year. In the meantime, say analysts, Murdoch was likely keen to keep Vivendi out of the BSkyB chairman's role.