Murdoch: no plans to list Sky Italia

[BGonaSTICK]

Media company News Corp. has no plans to list its Sky Italia television unit on the Italian bourse, Chairman and Chief Executive R. Murdoch said in comments published on Tuesday.

"There is no plan to take Sky Italia to the bourse," he told Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore in a brief interview.

An Italian newspaper report last month had quoted Sky Italia Chief Executive Tom Mockridge as saying a planned flotation would be put off until at least 2007.

Murdoch also said News Corp. was interested only in an accord with Telecom Italia about supplying content to the phone company, not a wide-ranging deal.

Telecom Italia distributes some Sky content over its Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) system but failed to clinch an equity deal with News Corp. this year.

Asked if he was interested in an comprehensive accord with Telecom Italia, Murdoch said, "No, no deal. What we're interested in is selling content to Telecom Italia and we're looking for agreement on this."

News Corp. and Italian telecoms operator Fastweb reached an agreement last month that called in part for Fastweb to distribute all Sky TV programming to Fastweb clients via IPTV.