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Murdoch made his comments at the Milken Institute's global conference as part of a panel discussion entitled "Global Overview: Creating Prosperity and Stability amid Ever-Accelerating Change".

Talking about the forthcoming upfronts, where US advertisers bid for prime-time advertising space from the major television networks, Murdoch said: "There were pretty dramatic increases a year ago. I think it will be a bit smaller this year."

He blamed the turn not on a softer market, but on the fragmentation of the television market with the rise in the number of channels available. Last year's upfronts netted an estimated $9.7bn (£5.41bn) for the major television networks, including Fox, CBS, ABC and NBC, a rise of 13% on the previous year.

However, reports suggest that the upfront season for advertising during children's programming is already up by as much as 20% as more advertisers rush to target children with DVDs and videogames.

At the same conference, Murdoch denied that he was in discussions with Liberty Media about selling certain assets, despite reports that Liberty's chairman John Malone had said that talks were "fairly active".

Murdoch denied that he was in sales talks, but said that they did talk every few weeks. Liberty had been reported to be interested in acquiring some of News Corporation's international television channels, with News Corp taking some Liberty stock in exchange.

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