While Rupert and James Murdoch both used the same forum of the annual Edinburgh Television Festival in years past to attack the state-funded BBC, Elisabeth, 44, is likely to take a more measured approach and could even touch on the failings of her own family firm when she speaks at the event on Thursday. 

A successful television producer in her own right with powerful friends in the British establishment and global business, what she says about the tabloid phone hacking affair that cost News Corp dear, tarred its reputation and scuppered an expansion in British television may help shape views of her fitness to run the company among both investors and regulators.

  Overlooked for more senior jobs that have in the past gone to younger brothers Lachlan and James, Elisabeth rarely speaks in public, despite being well known in Britain for her company's TV shows and as host alongside her PR man husband Matthew Freud of opulent social gatherings for the rich, famous and powerful. 

A change in tone from famously confrontational appearances at the festival by her father and brother, while understandable from someone whose clients have long been the other major broadcasters, will also underline how much has changed since James Murdoch addressed the same audience three years ago.