Murdoch's US ambitions were dashed last year when EchoStar made a $18bn (£11bn) bid for DirecTV, after Murdoch had been negotiating with EchoStar parent Hughes, part of General Motors, for almost a year.
The EchoStar bid ran into immediate opposition from regulators chiefly because a merger of the two satellite firms would eliminate competition in remote areas where there is no access to cable TV alternatives.
Following a year of defending the EchoStar-DirecTV deal to competition authorities, the FCC is due to hold a press conference on the proposed merger at 12pm EDT (5pm BST) today. It is expected to come out against the merger going ahead.
Last week, EchoStar chairman Charles Ergen is understood to have written to the FCC offering a number of major changes to its offer, including selling enough transmission capacity to allow another satellite competitor into the market.
The FCC is understood to have ignored the plea, believing the offers made are too little too late.
If the EchoStar takeover is not approved it will leave the path clear for News Corporation to move in and reignite negotiations with Hughes. If News Corp is successful, it would consolidate Murdoch's global satellite empire, which already has operations in the UK, Japan, China and Latin America.
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