Comcast preparing cash counter-offer for 21st Century Fox assets

US media and cable giant Comcast said today it preparing an all-cash offer for the key television and entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox that would top an offer on the table from Walt Disney Co.

Comcast said it is in "advanced stages of preparing" the offer for the assets Fox agreed to sell to Disney in a stock deal announced in December.

The bidding war is over Fox assets -- not including Fox News Channel or Fox Business Network -- that Disney in December said it would purchase for USD 52.4 billion.

Comcast, which owns the NBCUniversal media-entertainment group and is the largest US cable operator, said it was prepared to pay more that Disney.

"Any offer for Fox would be all-cash and at a premium to the value of the current all-share offer from Disney," the Comcast statement said.

"The structure and terms of any offer by Comcast, including with respect to both the spin-off of 'New Fox' and the regulatory risk provisions and the related termination fee, would be at least as favourable to Fox shareholders as the Disney offer."