Carey: Liberty Media Will Have Longer DirecTV Leash than News Corp.

DirecTV President and CEO Doesn’t See a Lot of Immediate Change Following Ownership Transfer

By Ben Grossman -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/12/2008 3:19:00 PM

DirecTV president and CEO Chase Carey said he doesn’t see a lot of immediate change on the horizon since his company’s ownership transfer, but he expects the satellite-TV provider to have a longer leash with new owner Liberty Media as opposed to previous owner News Corp.

“Change will evolve over time, but with Liberty, we will have more flexibility,” Carey said Wednesday afternoon at the IMG World Congress of Sports in Dana Point, Calif.

Carey added that the increased freedom will come because Liberty has fewer internal conflicts with other businesses, as News Corp. owns so many more businesses.

“With News Corp. as a significant shareholder, you had a company with a lot of businesses intertwined with ours,” he said. “Not that [Liberty] doesn’t have other businesses, but we are a centerpiece for their growth and they will give us a much more wide-open arena to take advantage of whatever opportunities we see.”

But Carey did say that he doesn’t expect to see significant immediate change as a result of the move.

“Operationally there won’t be,” he added. “The deal took long enough that we had enough time to talk to them and they are very supportive of the direction we are going.”