Elisabeth Murdoch will walk away from the TV production empire she built when the planned merger between her Shine Group and two other companies, Endemol and Core Media, is finalised.
The 46-year-old daughter of media titan Rupert Murdoch launched Shine in 2001 and has remained in charge of it for the last two years since its acquisition by 21st Century Fox - then News Corp - in 2011 for $US675 million ($772 million).
Once the merger is finalised, the younger Murdoch will step down and former BSkyB content executive Sophie Turner Laing will assume the title of chief executive officer.
The merged entity will be the biggest production company in the world.
It will also control some of the most successful television programming in the world, including Shine's formats MasterChef, The Biggest Loser and The Face.
Endemol's program library includes the Big Brother format at the game show Deal or No Deal. Core owns the reality formats American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance.
The content controlled by the Shine-Endemol-Core merged entity is, however, top heavy with reality formats. The companies are less productive in the realm of scripted programming.
Shine has launched aggressively into scripted content, with a US adaptation of the Danish crime drama The Bridge and a US adaptation of the British crime drama Broadchurch, titled Gracepoint; it is telling, however, that their biggest scripted assets are acquired scripted formats.
Elisabeth Murdoch's decision to step down will, inevitably, fuel speculation about a Murdoch family succession, as the move leaves her with no connection to her father's global media empire.
Murdoch was said to have been offered a seat on the board of News Corp at the time of its acquisition by Shine but she declined.
It was reported that she was concerned that it would seem "inappropriate" to take the position in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.
The same scandal later forced her brother James to step down from his chairmanship and relocate to New York.
Both of Murdoch's brothers - James and Lachlan - hold seats on the board of their father's company.
Elisabeth Murdoch has not confirmed her plans for the future, however, US media reports suggest she intends to "focus on her other investments".
