Microsoft to beef up MSN label, rename TV
"Connors declined to provide further details after his speech. Nor would he discuss whether the change is related to efforts by Microsoft and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. to buy the Hughes DirectTV satellite broadcasting business and create a large, multinational broadcasting venture. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Microsoft would contribute $3 billion to buy Hughes, a subsidiary of General Motors.
Perhaps Microsoft would run an MSNTV Web site offered by the News Corp-Microsoft venture, speculated Josh Bernoff, an interactive TV analyst with Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass."
How compatible would that be with the common ventures Microsoft has with NBC (MSNBC, CNBC MoneyCentral)?
05/08/01 update: DirecTV Is the Deal Rupert Murdoch Has to Have.