Mr Rupert Murdoch yesterday sounded a cautious note on future investments as further charges from an ill-timed foray into interactive television dragged News Corporation, the media empire he controls, into the red in the final quarter of its fiscal year.

"We will not be making any investments in anything where we do not have complete control or a considerable level of control," Mr Murdoch said.

He was speaking as News Corporation took a $1.9 billion (€1.94 billion) charge against earnings to reflect a further drop in the value of its stake in Gemstar, the publisher of TV Guide and developer of interactive programme guides for digital television.

The write-off brought News Corporations's total charges against earnings for the past 12 months to $9.2 billion, reflecting the fallout from Gemstar, the bankruptcy of the German media group Kirch and News Corporation's decision to write down the value of broadcasting rights for US sports.

Mr Murdoch said the company was still interested in combining its Italian pay-TV joint venture, Stream, with the rival platform Telepiu, which is owned by the troubled French media group Vivendi.

However, he said News Corporation would have to verify the accuracy of Telepiu's subscriber numbers before a deal could be completed.

News Corporation also said it was preparing to exercise an option to sell its shareholding in Rainbow Media, its programming joint venture, to Cablevision by the end of the year.

Excluding the charges, News Corporation reported an 11 per cent increase in fourth-quarter revenues and a 25 per cent increase in operating profits, driven mainly by a strong performance at its film unit with the worldwide release of the children's cartoon, Ice Age.

The cable programming division continued its strong profit growth. - (Financial Times Service)