Media conglomerate News Corp announced Friday that it had filed a document with US regulators detailing its split into two independent companies. The statement did not specify a date for the split into one company focused on news and publishing, to retain the News Corp name, and another on television and film, to be called Fox Group.

The company had announced the restructuring in June, a move partly seen as a nod to shareholders angered by the reputational damage and costs inflicted by a phone hacking scandal in Britain, and partly because of troubles within the group's publishing arm. Friday's announcement was "another important step forward in the evolution of our company and in the establishment of two independent global leaders in Fox Group and the new News Corporation," chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch said in the statement. The company has been actively preparing for the restructuring. In early December, Murdoch named people to top posts for the new branches, and announced the end of the media group's iPad newspaper The Daily.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012