Rupert Murdoch owns most of the pieces to make his grandest cross-platform schemes possible in the U.S. — satellite, major cable channels, a broadcast network, sites that draw tens of millions of visitors monthly, including popular MySpace.com. But if this were a jigsaw puzzle, Murdoch would be left with a hole where the last key piece belongs: News Corp. doesn’t have its own U.S. broadband network, useful for many reasons but especially for keeping its DirecTV from being vulnerable to cable triple plays and for making it fully interactive. Murdoch and company want to put that piece in place and have said recently that it could take up to $1 billion to make it happen. Whether it’s WiMax, some other technology or a blend relying on wireless, it will be surprising if News Corp. doesn’t make a serious broadband move gthrough DirecTV this year.
Business Week takes a look at the situation, suggesting that once a network is in place it could be a programming distribution platform for the rest of the company. That’s clearly an intention, given the recent announcements that DirecTV will provide preview and encore VOD access to some Fox/FX programming.
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