Rupert Murdoch’s campaign for world domination took a giant step forward yesterday as MCI Communications Corp won the one US direct broadcast satellite slot up for auction yesterday, enabling Murdoch to recreate his British Sky Broadcasting Plc and Star TV Asian satellite television systems in the US. MCI, which has paid an initial $1,000m and will pay a total of $2,000m for a 13% stake in Murdoch’s News Corp, made no secret of the fact that it planned to act as News Corp’s proxy in the bidding – part of the plan is for the satellite television channels to be made interactive by using MCI telephone lines as the return channel by which subscribers deliver their responses (CI No 2,760). Since he already controls the Fox terrestrial television network, the satellite licence would give Murdoch at least as much reach and clout in the US entertainment industry as any of the three long- established television networks. Tele-Communications Inc dropped out of the auction for the single satellite television slot after MCI entered the high bid of $450m, and MCI went on to beat EchoStar Communications Corp in Englewood, Colorado, the only other bidder. The breathtakingly audacious bid by News Corp to buy exclusive rights to all the Olympic Games for the first decade of the next century made it clear that Murdoch would pay whatever it took to ensure that the MCI bid won the day. The auction, conducted by the Federal Communications Commission, is for an orbital satellite slot capable of beaming 170 television channels to residential and business subscribers US-wide – as well as to potential customers in Canada and Latin America. Existing direct broadcast satellite providers are GM Hughes Inc’s DirecTV subsidiary and Minneapolis-based Hubbard Broadcasting’s United States Satellite Broadcasting Co. There are currently a mere 1.2m US satellite subscribers, so the market is virgin territory, but Murdoch now knows more about winning satellite television subscribers than any man alive. British Telecommunications Plc has a 20% shareholding in MCI.
