News Corp. Not Pursuing NBCU

News Corp. Pres. and COO Chase Carey stated today at the B & C OnScreen Media Summit that his company is not "actively engaged" in pursuing a stake in NBCU should Vivendi exercise their option to sell in November. Though he has admitted to thinking about pursuing a stake in the company, he believes that there's a "decent chance" that Comcast will in fact hold the controlling share in NBCU come December.

I think it's great news that News Corp. isn't going after NBCU. They already own FOX and there would be way too many legal and ethical issues involved with them owning two of the 4 major broadcast networks. The bigger problem/issue with the whole Comcast deal is that if it does happen then it opens up the possibility for the other major distributors to try to acquire similar deals.

Just last week, Liberty Media CEO John Malone stated that he believes combining content and distribution "creates quite a bit of value opportunity". While this is certainly a true statement, the television industry is entering uncharted territory and no one knows exactly what will happen next.