News Corp. COO on Comcast-NBC Universal Deal

Chase Carey, chief operating officer of News Corp., thinks that Comcast's planned acquisition of 51 percent of NBC Universal "makes sense for Comcast."

"There are real opportunities for synergy between content and distribution," Carey, News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch's No. 2 after returning to the company from DirecTV in June, was speaking at the Dow Jones-Nielsen sponsored Media and Money Conference at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York this morning. "I do think it's a pretty smartly structured deal…. Clearly, given the amount of core strength of Comcast today, to get an entrance into one of the unique content distribution franchises in the world…. It clearly presents opportunities for them."

In October, News Corp.'s name was floated out as a possible buyer of Vivendi's 20 percent of NBC Universal, a rumor that quickly disappeared as Comcast's interest grew.

Carey was being interviewed onstage by Shira Ovide of the Wall Street Journal, who took the opportunity to note that as COO of her paper's parent company, Carey is technically her boss.

Asked by Ovide what a Comcast-NBC Universal deal could mean for News Corp. and other competitors, Carey said of the combined entity, "It would certainly give them more leverage." He was quick to add that there may be certain regulatory hurdles the combined organization would need overcome.

"Those will all be topics that will debated. We're in a new administration, a new Washington," he said.