The board of the News Corporation, which is headed by media industry tycoon, Rupert Murdoch, has approved a plan to split the company's entertainment businesses from the publishing division.

The company announced the names of the board of the directors, details of the share distribution and announced a $500 million stock-buyback program for the News Corp following the split up of the company. The company is also planning to write down the value of its publishing business by $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion this quarter.

The board will split the group into separate units each responsible for publishing and entertainment businesses, according to people closer to the matter. The approval to the plan would create two publicly listed companies. The move, which has been resisted by Mr. Murdoch since years, will help save the News Corp's more profitable TV operations from the scandal-hit UK newspaper business. News Corporation has a 39 per cent stake in UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

In the publishing industry, the group runs the Sun and the Times newspapers in the UK, the Australian newspaper, and the book publisher HarperCollins. Its television businesses include 20th Century Fox, Fox broadcast network and Fox News Channel, besides BSkyB.