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PHOTO FEATURE – Lachlan Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp. and 20th Century Fox, arrives at the annual Allen and Co. conference at Sun Valley, Idaho Resort, July 9, 2013. REUTERS / Rick Wilking
(Reuters) – Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (FOXA.O) The executive chairman, Lachlan Murdoch, said Thursday that the question of whether the company would buy back the regional sports networks that it had sold to the entertainment company Walt Disney Co was still topical (DIS.N) in July as part of a $ 71 billion deal.
Speaking to the New York Times Co's (NYT.N) At the DealBook conference in New York, Murdoch, who will become the CEO of the remaining company, "New Fox," said the company would "be inquisitive" in considering the possibility of buying back sports assets.
Disney won a bidding war earlier this year against cable company Comcast Corp. (CMCSA.O) to acquire Fox's film and television assets. However, the US Department of Justice said Disney, the owner of the ESPN cable network, was to divest Fox's 22 networks of sports programming for regional and local markets.
Murdoch said that New Fox, which will include Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, will be very active in live programming, but that the number of viewers for live entertainment programs is declining. Live sports can help support live entertainment programming, he added.
Murdoch also said that the US wireless telecommunications company Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ.N) had called Fox 18 months ago to discuss a possible acquisition, but said that the company believed that the assets would not be suitable for Verizon.
A spokesman for Verizon declined to comment.
Reportage of Sheila Dang; Edited by David Gregorio
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