But if the scandal infects BSkyB, the consequences are more serious than if they remain quarantined to the smaller and less profitable British print business. So far, the only pain suffered by News Corp's broadcasting arm occurred last year, when it was forced to withdraw its bid to buy the remaining 61 per cent of BSkyB it didn't own. But just this month, The Guardian newspaper in London revealed the broadcast regulator, Ofcom, had recently launched its Project Apple inquiry into whether News Corp met the ''fit and proper person'' test to hold a television licence. Ofcom itself noted it had a duty to examine whether any broadcast owner continued to meet its fit and proper person tests, and that it would assess new evidence around hacking and corruption. While many of the recently aired hacking allegations were dismissed in a 2008 court battle between NDS and Echostar, News Corp would fear that no matter the merits of the fresh claims - which include a cache of 14,400 emails from a now-defunct ''black ops'' group within News, uncovered by The Australian Financial Review - the stench could affect Ofcom's deliberations. While News Corp is renowned as a fierce enemy, the wider risks of renewed piracy claims have doubtless spurred its attacks on rival media outlets.

Just yesterday morning, after a flurry of tweets on Thursday, Rupert Murdoch vented his rage at The Financial Review's owner, telling Twitter: ''Proof you can't trust anything in Australian Fairfax papers, unless you are just another crazy.'' Many countries have a fit-and-proper-person test to vet television channel owners. In Australia, a narrow version of the test is overseen by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, which is not at present looking at News Corp as a quarter owner of Foxtel. Under the Australian Broadcasting Act, ACMA may consider: the licence holder's business record; its ''record in situations requiring trust and candour''; and whether it has broken any broadcasting laws. In Britain, Ofcom makes its decision not simply on the basis of whether that proprietor has or may have committed a crime, but also whether a person is ''willing or capable of complying with UK broadcasting regulation,'' a lawyer, Jason Chess, from a leading British media law firm, Wiggin, said last year. The British regulator has a smorgasbord of inquiries, admitted wrongs, and rejected allegations of wrongdoing to consider. These include three Metropolitan Police inquiries into phone hacking, computer hacking and payments to police; Lord Justice Leveson's two-pronged inquiry into the media in general, due to report within the year, and the conduct of News International, other newspaper groups and the police, which is dependent on the police probes.

In the US, the FBI is investigating bribery claims at a former Russian business, and claims that the phones of September 11 victims were hacked. It also faces multiple class actions in the US courts. First out of the blocks, however, will be the British select committee inquiry into press standards, which will report within weeks. This is the inquiry in which the Labour MP and fierce Murdoch critic Tom Watson ripped into Rupert and James Murdoch last July (and when Murdoch's wife's fans on YouTube dubbed her ''Wendi Crouching Tiger Deng'' for her feisty defence of her husband during a cream pie attack). How this week's reporting will affect Ofcom's deliberations is not yet known, but media law experts expect it could colour the considerations. Watson has called for the regulator to look at the BBC's claims. But back to the risks of contagion. If Ofcom does, eventually, find against News Corp and force the company to sell out of BSkyB, that would not automatically threaten its right to hold a broadcast licence in other countries. ACMA is not required to follow an Ofcom decision with an inquiry of its own into News Corp as a quarter owner of Foxtel, although such an outcome would clearly ramp up the pressure for one.

Nor would an Ofcom decision automatically raise questions about its ownership of US cable groups. The authorities there have rarely pulled broadcasting licences. One of the last big licensing disputes was over RKO, which after more than a decade of legal disputes, lost its Boston TV licence on the basis that it ''lacked the requisite character'' after a complex series of court actions about anti-competitive trade practices. So, the scandal has not yet widened enough to spook investors, the financial market has in fact rejoiced that the hacking inquiries and expected charges might finally force Murdoch to relinquish his emotional ties to the print business and spin it off into a separate company. This hope has driven the share price close to two-year highs, and even after this week, it remains only just shy of those highs. The financial markets have long valued the parts more highly than the whole, because News's pay TV arm is the biggest generator of profits for the company. Analysts have said that separation would lift the overall value of the group by about $6 billion. Before this week, investment advisers believed the costs of the scandal would not reach $3 billion, including any fines for breaches of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and that any forced asset sales would not harm shareholders because News makes more money from spinning off assets than by keeping them. A curve ball from Ofcom would be likely to make them reconsider.