NEWS Corp's businesses are not for sale, says Rupert Murdoch despite speculation he is on the verge of selling some television assets to Liberty Media's John Malone.
"There's nothing for sale. We're happy," News' executive chairman said in Los Angeles. Mr Malone was quoted in Britain's Financial Times last week saying there were "fairly active" talks between News and Liberty Media about "certain small assets that we feel fit Liberty better than News Corp".
He also said Liberty could exchange News shares it held for News assets, rumoured to be the international arms of News' National Geographic and FX TV channels.
But asked if News and Liberty were in talks about sales, Mr Murdoch said "no", then added, "I mean, you know, we talk every few weeks."
Mr Murdoch was a guest speaker at the Milken Institute's recent annual Global Conference in Beverly Hills.
The event drew US executives including Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone; US TV network CBS chairman Leslie Moonves, America Online chief executive Jonathan Miller and former US Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean.
Mr Murdoch was upbeat about the outlook for Australian and US economies and said he was "optimistic about the Australian economy".
He told the conference he was extremely optimistic about the US and world economies in the medium-to-long term.
Advertising rates for News' US television businesses, including the Fox TV free-to-air network and Fox News 24-hour news channel, would rise, but not as much as last year.
"We had a pretty dramatic increase a year ago in television rates right across the board," Mr Murdoch said. "I think it will be a little smaller this year."
Commenting on interest rates, Mr Murdoch said it would be "stupid" to increase rates in an attempt to stem rising commodity prices.
"If you jack interest rates up dramatically it's not going to reduce the price of oil unless it produces a worldwide recession."
