News Corp. Chair Rupert Murdoch told the Fox News
Channel yesterday that GE has offered to sell its NBC TV
network to Time Warner for $25B, according to Jill Goldsmith
of DAILY VARIETY. Murdoch: "I understand ... one or two
people on the board are very much in favor of buying it and
the rest are very much opposed to it." A GE spokesperson
said there was "no truth" to Murdoch's comments: "We don't
usually comment on the musings of other people, but in this
case we're giving a flat-out denial." In other news,
Murdoch said that Fox will not ask its affils to help pay
the cost of its recent $200M-plus annual NASCAR TV rights
deal. Murdoch: "If we had outbid CBS on college basketball,
we may have had to pass around the begging cup." Murdoch
said that CBS topped Fox's NCAA bid by more than $100M when
it agreed to pay $6.2B over the 11-year deal. Murdoch:
"Maybe they have some secret." Murdoch also called the now
wholly owned Fox Sport Net a "potent competitor to the
established ESPN franchise" (DAILY VARIETY, 11/24). Murdoch
gave a "conservative outlook" for the NASCAR deal: "We're
not going to make a fortune." But he is expecting profits
from the investment. Murdoch is also thinking about going
public with some of the company's Internet holdings. A Web
IPO would likely include online content from Fox Sports, Fox
Kids and other parts of the company, in addition to Fox.com
(N.Y. POST, 11/24). Meanwhile, Murdoch said he is not
interested in boosting ratings to Fox's primetime schedule
by adding wrestling to its lineup: "I tried to watch it the
other night. It's such crap" (USA TODAY, 11/24).
