Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, the world's fifth-largest media conglomerate, has denied that talks with US direct satellite television broadcaster EchoStar Communications have failed.
Responding to an investment bank warning that a possible merger between EchoStar and DirecTV could hurt Kudelski, the Swiss digital broadcast technology group's executive chairman Andre Kudelski said News Corp and EchoStar talks had broken down.
Kudelski also said a merger between DirecTV, a unit of Hughes Electronics, and EchoStar would provide the Swiss company with a "very good opportunity" to gain contracts.
"The talks between News Corp and EchoStar failed because News Corp wanted to impose their conditional access system and EchoStar refused," Kudelski told Reuters in Zurich by telephone.
But News Corp said it was still in talks with EchoStar.
News Corp is also in separate talks with Hughes and its majority owner General Motors on merging its satellite TV operations with DirecTV to create a global provider.
"We haven't concluded talks with any possible parties, including Hughes and GM and other companies, including EchoStar," a News Corp spokesman told Reuters by telephone.
DirecTV is the top US satellite operator with 9.5 million customers and EchoStar has 5.3 million customers. A merger would make the combined entity the second-biggest pay television group in the US behind AT&T.
