Friday April 11 6:15 AM EDT
Report: News Corp Mulls Primestar as Sky Ally
NEW YORK (Reuter) - News Corp., which is planning a $1 billion satellite venture with EchoStar Communications called Sky, might be looking at Primestar as an alternative partner, USA Today said Friday.
News Corp Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch was said to have spoken in the last two weeks with Tele-Communications Inc. CEO John Malone about an alternative, the newspaper said. Primestar is a satellite service controlled by TCI, Time Warner, U.S. West's Continental Cablevision, Comcast and Cox, it said.
TCI declined to comment in the report, but Preston Padden, Murdoch's president of Worldwide Satellite Operations, was quoted in the paper as denying the speculation. "This is somebody's fantasy," he was quoted as saying.
Under a deal, the companies would offer News Corp's cable services, including fX and the Fox News Channel to more of their customers, the newspaper said.
The newspaper said Malone spoke to Primestar partners about the proposal.
None of the companies mentioned in the report was immediately available to comment. |
