The media giant confirmed the move in a statement received here after a speculative report in The Wall Street Journal.

"We have under serious consideration plans to consolidate our worldwide satellite platforms and certain related assets under one umbrella entity," it said.

"It is premature to speculate on the final format of this umbrella entity, the makeup of its assets, the identity of its investors or whether the entity will be a public company."

According to the Journal, the spin-off would include its 40 percent stake in British Sky Broadcasting and its pan-Asian satellite service Star TV.

It would also involve its minority stake in Japan Sky Broadcasting, Australian pay-TV operator Foxtel, Sky Latin America, Germany's Premier and Italy's Stream.

News Corp. would also likely include its 82 percent stake in News Digital Systems and its 20 percent stake in TV Guide International, according to the Journal, which quoted people "familiar with the plan".

It would hold at least 60 percent of the new company with the balance either owned by strategic partners or the public.

The company would continue to own and operate its newspapers, book publishing and Internet businesses.

The Australian Financial Review said as much as 10 billion US dollars could be raised by floating just half of the satellite group.

With its most recent balance sheet showing News already has 5.0 billion US dollars cash on its books, analysts said Murdoch could be planning to pull-off some sort of massive media merger to rival the recently announced 149 billion US dollar America Online-Time Warner alliance.

"With the satellite spin-off Murdoch would obtain a vehicle large enough to play Internet and media alliance games without threatening his grip on the mighty News empire," the Financial Review said.

Other analysts also reacted positively to the confirmation.

"The spinning off of the satellite assets would make sense in terms of raising a bit of cash, if that is how they decided to do it, and freeing the company up to move more aggressively into the digital age," one media analyst said.

"I think Rupert (Murdoch) would still like to control the assets tough, whatever path they go with."

Another said it was positive step in terms of News' strategy for dealing with the future.

"I think they are hoping it will unlock the value of those satellite assets and give them the cash to look at further mergers and acquisitions," he said.

The Journal said Murdoch was gambling that outside the United States, satellites are going to be the major broadband pipeline into the home and could serve as a digital platform to transmit data, video and e-commerce at faster speeds than cable.

News Corp's market value has surged to more than 90 billion dollars, around twice its value of four months ago, since the AOL/Time Warner annoucement.

This is despite Murdoch talking down the possibility that he might engage in his own mega media-technology merger.

News Corp

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