Murdock planning new channel

Rupert Murdoch's media empire News Corp, which owns the Fox television operations, is planning to unveil a cable TV channel by the end of this year.

Murdoch said that the media giant will roll out a Fox channel - either in business, sports or entertainment - and is plotting more channels for 2005.

The company recently gained control of satellite TV operator DirecTV, giving Murdoch a head start of 12.5 million homes for the new channel.

News Corp. said yesterday that third-quarter net profit rose 69% to $465m (€390.6bn) , with revenue up 19% to $5.2bn (€4.36bn).