News could take full control of Fox Sports Australia as it bids for Consolidated Media

Australian media conglomerate News Limited has made a takeover offer for Consolidated Media Holdings, which has a 50-per-cent stake in Australian pay-television sports broadcaster Fox Sports.

News Limited has tabled a bid of A$3.50 (€2.80/$3.53) per share in a proposed deal worth A$1.966 billion, according to the Herald Sun newspaper.

The billionaire James Packer, executive chairman of Consolidated Media’s largest shareholder, Consolidated Press Holdings, said that he welcomed News Limited’s offer and that his company would “support the proposal in the absence of a superior cash offer.” Packer is the son of late Australian media mogul Kerry Packer.

Fox Sports is a 50-50 partnership between Consolidated Media and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation media conglomerate. Fox faces talks this year to renew two of its biggest sports rights properties – NRL rugby league and Australian league and national team football. Talks for the next cycle of NRL rights, from 2013 to 2017, have already begun. The Football Federation of Australia will this year tender the league and national team football rights for the 2013-14 to 2017-18 period.

Consolidated Media also has a 25-per-cent stake in pay-television broadcaster Foxtel. News Corporation also has a 25-per-cent stake, with telecommunications company Telstra holding the remaining 50-per-cent share.

The takeover of Consolidated Media still requires the approval of the News Corporation board, the Foreign Investment Review Board and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission regulator. Any deal is unlikely to be completed before the final quarter of 2012.