AOL Time Warner has a minority stake in Hughes, the General Motors division which owns DirecTV, and EchoStar CEO Charles Ergin is said to have approached the internet and media giant about helping rally a small number of Hughes shareholders to get behind EchoStar's offer.
However, News Corp is believed to be making significant progress in its efforts to cut a deal which would see Hughes merge with Sky Global Networks, parent of BSkyB and Star TV, valuing DirecTV at $50bn (£36bn). Such a deal could complicate DirecTV's relationship with AOL Time Warner, from which DirecTV buys a lot of content.
AOL Time Warner is not expected to give EchoStar any financial backing toward the bid because regulators would frown upon its involvement with such a huge satellite TV provider, given that it operates one of the countries largest cable networks.
EchoStar is understood to have approached a number of media and communications companies about financial backing but they are said to have shied away because of the kind of regulatory scrutiny its proposed takeover of DirecTV would face.