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FCC May Allow Murdoch Long Restructuring Period: In an effort to win unanimous approval for a staff plan that would force Rupert Murdoch into a costly restructuring of his Fox television stations, FCC Chairman Reed Hundt is considering allowing a long restructuring period to ease the financial impact, sources say. The Federal Communications Commission's Mass Media Bureau staff last week recommended that News Corp.

The New York Giants weren't the only ones to walk away winners from Super Bowl XLII. News Corp. said it reaped $250 million in advertising revenue for the day of the game -- the biggest day in Fox network history. The football game, with the Giants' unexpected victory over the previously undefeated New England Patriots, was the second-most-watched telecast ever, with 97.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

MySpace, the top social networking site owned by News Corp., is in talks to create an online music joint venture with the four biggest record companies, sources familiar with the discussion said Wednesday. The talks are part of Rupert Murdoch's plans to distinguish MySpace, a haven for new music fans, from fast-moving rival Facebook as the premier destination for digital media. Plans for the service, tentatively named MySpace Music, are still in the discussion phase.

Federal regulators on Monday approved a long-pending deal allowing News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch to swap his controlling interest in satellite broadcaster DirecTV Group Inc. for a larger stake in his own company. News Corp.'s 38.4% stake in El Segundo-based DirecTV goes to former cable executive John Malone and his holding company Liberty Media Corp. Liberty also gets $550 million in cash and Fox's regional cable sports networks in Seattle, Denver and Pittsburgh in exchange for its 16.

News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media said it would fall short of Chairman Rupert Murdoch's target for revenue of $1 billion this fiscal year and announced a reorganization of the unit designed to drive growth. "It wasn't one smoking gun. It was a series of things that were a little late to come to market," said Michael Barrett, who will step down as chief revenue officer at Fox Interactive after a two-month transition period.

MySpace can collect $6 million from a notorious Internet marketer accused by the popular online hangout of spamming its users. An arbitrator has ruled that Scott Richter and his Web marketing company, Media Breakaway of Westminster, Colo., must pay MySpace $4.8 million in damages and $1.2 million in attorney's fees for barraging MySpace members with unsolicited advertisements. Media Breakaway and its employees were also banned from the site. MySpace, a unit of News Corp.

News Corp. said its first-quarter net income fell 30% from a year earlier because of a large write-down and a drop in ad revenue at its TV stations. Net income at the company run by billionaire Rupert Murdoch fell to $515 million, or 20 cents a share. A year earlier, net income was $732 million, or 23 cents. Revenue rose 6.3% to $7.5 billion. Operating income fell 9% to $953 million, compared with $1.1 billion reported a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected first-quarter earnings per share to fall 2% to 23 cents on revenue of $7.7 billion, 8% higher than a year earlier.

New Corp.'s Peter Chernin is wrestling over whether to surrender one of the biggest jobs in entertainment. For the last 12 years, Chernin has been president and chief operating officer of News Corp. and helped his boss, Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch, reshape the global media empire. But at 57, he's not sure whether to extend his contract for an additional two or three years, or embark on another, less certain, chapter in his career. Executives within News Corp.

In one of the quickest turnarounds ever for a television show to appear on DVD, Twentieth Century Fox Television today is expected to release the season premiere episodes of "24" less than 12 hours after the popular drama finishes airing. The sixth season of the show starring Kiefer Sutherland as federal agent and terrorist fighter Jack Bauer was launched Sunday and Monday on Fox Broadcasting Network. By this morning, DVDs of the shows will be on retail shelves.