Rupert Murdoch, the 84-year old media baron, will hand over the chief executive reins at entertainment conglomerate Twenty-First Century Fox Inc to his 42-year-old son James, a source familiar with the situation said yesterday.

Fox chief operating officer Chase Carey will step into an advisory role as part of a generational shift at the parent company of Fox News and movie studio behind X-Men and other series, the source said, adding that James Murdoch and his 43-year-old brother Lachlan would work as partners.

The elder Murdoch, whose media career spans the better part of a century, will take on the role of executive chairman, according to published reports.

While New York-based James will have day-to-day control of the company, Lachlan, who will be moving from Sydney to Los Angeles, will play an integral role as the company’s co-executive chair.

This will be the first time that only Murdoch family members will occupy the top three positions at the company.

Fox said on Thursday it would take up the succession issue at its next board meeting, which the source said would take place next week.

As of April, the Murdochs owned 39 per cent of voting shares in both Fox and News Corp, which operates newspapers like The Wall Street Journal and book publisher HarperCollins, through a family trust.