Media tycoon Mr Rupert Murdoch is recruiting partners to join an imminent deal to take control of Italy's pay television market as he seeks to expand his European empire, say sources familiar with the talks.
The sources said Mr Murdoch's News Corp was on the verge of signing a preliminary agreement to buy Franco-American rival Vivendi Universal out of Italy, but a binding deal including other investors would take several weeks more.
An initial deal is set to be announced either later today or early next week, paving the way for News Corp to merge Vivendi's Telepiu with its own Italian pay-TV operator Stream to stem huge losses after a damaging battle for subscribers.
"News Corp would end up as the biggest shareholder in Italian pay-TV but others may also be involved," one source said. Another source said News Corp's current Italian partner Telecom Italia may end up being among them.
"A binding agreement still has a long way to go," said a third source familiar with the talks.
Both News Corp and Vivendi declined to comment.
The price will be less than the amount per subscriber agreed when News Corp signed a different deal last year to sell Stream to Vivendi, the sources said. That price was not made public but Vivendi said during talks it was paying $600 (Stg£411 pounds) per subscriber.
Reports have suggested News Corp will pay as much as one billion euros for Telepiu and its 1.8 million subscribers. Broker Macquarie Research estimated News Corp was looking to pay $800 million but would incur losses of some $250 million from the merged operator in the first year.