BellSouth Corp’s plunge into fun and games and television with its agreement to bankroll QVC Network Inc’s bid for Paramount Communications Inc may not do its credit rating any good: Standard and Poor’s Corp says it may downgrade the Atlanta Baby Bell’s ratings as a result, affecting $9,400m of debt issued by BellSouth and its units, which currently have S&P’s highest rating, triple-A. BellSouth has the capacity to finance its investment without affecting payments on its debt, but the review reflects the company’s departure from extremely conservative practices in the past, the rating agency said, adding that it is also continuing a review of QVC’s debt ratings without saying which way it might move after the latest developments.
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