FCC Gets News’ DirecTV-Liberty Filing
By Mike Farrell -- Multichannel News, 1/29/2007 12:06:00 PM
News Corp. filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission Monday to transfer its interest in DirecTV Group to Liberty Media, adding in the filing that the new owners would abide by conditions imposed by the commission when it approved News Corp.’s acquisition of a controlling interest in the direct-broadcast satellite giant nearly three years ago.
News Corp. agreed to swap its 38.4% interest in DirecTV, $550 million in cash and three regional sports networks in Pittsburgh, Denver and Seattle in exchange for Liberty’s 19% voting interest in News Corp. The deal was valued at about $11 billion.
In the filing, News Corp. said Liberty has agreed to adhere to program-access and carriage conditions for the RSNs imposed by the FCC in 2004 when it approved News Corp.’s acquisition of Hughes Electronics’ controlling interest in DirecTV.
Those conditions include not offering regional or national programming exclusively to any multichannel-video provider; not discriminating against unaffiliated programming services in selection, pricing or carriage terms on the DirecTV platform; and agreeing to independent arbitration in the event of a dispute regarding access to the RSNs.
Upon the closing of the transaction, News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch, chief operating officer Peter Chernin and chief financial officer David DeVoe will resign from DirecTV’s board of directors and be replaced by Liberty chairman John Malone, CEO Greg Maffei and one other designee selected by Liberty.
The filing stated that current DirecTV CEO Chase Carey is expected to stay on in that role, as well as remaining on the board of directors.
In making its case that the transaction serves the public interest, News Corp. pointed to how the deal will “reduce concerns regarding access to ‘must-have’ regional sports networks, reduce vertical integration and foster DirecTV’s development and deployment of advanced services valued by subscribers.”
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