NEW YORK -- News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch said Monday that his conglomerate will continue to focus on creating "more content and better content" as it pushes deeper into the online space but that it might have to rethink traditional film and TV business models in the process.

Speaking at Citigroup's annual Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Conference in Phoenix, Murdoch predicted that given rising movie production and marketing costs, "it can be very interesting" for film producers in the future to release a movie, if not all movies, only to broadband Web users for $3-$4 per view, especially if that film costs only $2 million or so to produce.

"There will be more fragmentation and choice" as the broadband market continues to expand, Murdoch said. "Big companies like ours must change (in this environment), and we are preparing ourselves for that."

The CEO called News Corp. "the greatest content collection in the world," arguing that new technologies are not a threat but "an opportunity" for it. "We love hearing about all these new (tech) gizmos," he said. "We'll be on all of them. They are useless without anything on them."

Asked about News Corp.'s online assets, Murdoch again touted their growth potential, calling it "enormous." He also targeted $350 million-$400 million in Web revenue for 2007.

Web community destination MySpace.com this week is launching free video downloads and soon will add instant messaging and Voice over Internet services, the media tycoon told investors. Murdoch predicts "millions of (video) downloads a day."

With 47 million users and growth of more than 1 million per week, MySpace will be News Corp.'s main way of reaching online users, Murdoch said. Asked if MySpace will become an Internet portal, he said if so, it wouldn't be one in today's sense of the word. Today's portal model risks going out of business, Murdoch said, arguing that Yahoo! Inc. and others don't reach enough users under age 25.

However, he admitted that it will take News Corp. "a while" to catch Yahoo! and MSN in terms of page views.

Murdoch also signaled that there has been little movement in continuing talks with John Malone's Liberty Media about ways for News Corp. to buy out its 18% voting stake.

"We are discussing things and will have discussion over the next two or three months," he said, adding that Liberty has not put forth any major new proposals. "We hope we can move forward. If not, they will stay as long-term shareholders."

Asked if the Internet will hurt News Corp.'s TV business, Murdoch said he was "convinced our local stations will stay healthy as long as they stay local" with local news and talks programs, in which the conglomerate has invested.

As for News Corp.-controlled DirecTV Group's high-speed Internet strategy, which it has been exploring, Murdoch said he expects management there to communicate a "very clear" wireless broadband plan in the next two months or so, which likely would involve a DirecTV investment of about $1 billion.

Analysts have said satellite TV providers need cost-effective broadband offerings for users to better compete with cable operators.

"We are looking at various alternatives" in terms of the best technologies and approaches, Murdoch said, including partnerships and going it alone.

Meanwhile at the Citigroup conference Monday, DirecTV president and CEO Chase Carey said that he feels his company has a "very competitive" product bundle in cooperation with telecommunications firms over the near term, but wireless Web services could add to consumer choices offered by DirecTV.

Any potential investments by DirecTV beyond simple partnerships would be "careful," with the $1 billion figure mentioned by Murdoch "probably being the high end" of the possible range, he added. This year is likely to see some movement on that front, Carey added, but he signaled it could take a little longer than hinted by Murdoch.

DirecTV continues to see its long-term subscriber target at about 20 million, Carey said, after passing the 15 million mark in October. The firm has a board meeting coming up that will discuss likely stock buybacks, he said, including from the General Motors pension fund, from which DirecTV had been blocked through late December under the deal that gave News Corp. control of DirecTV.

Asked about his firm's relationships with digital-video recorder pioneer TiVo Inc. and competitor NDS, which is News Corp.-controlled, Carey again said that "it doesn't fit our strategy" as well to offer TiVo than to offer NDS DVRs, which DirecTV can brand itself. DirecTV wants to control and brand the DVR, because it is "at the heart of the DirecTV experience," including video-on-demand services, as well as future enhanced content and advertising offerings that DirecTV might create.

Carey also said that DirecTV will move to an equipment lease rather than sale model starting in March, which will reduce its costs, particularly in 2007.

Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg said Monday at the conference that he is "encouraged" by early market acceptance of the telephone giant's FiOS TV video service that competes with cable and satellite TV operators. Addressing investor concerns about the firm's billions of dollars of investment, he added that the more Verizon invests, the greater its revenue and return from the business will be.

A slide Seidenberg showed projected about 6% compound-annual growth in video revenue between 2005-10, compared with 2% in the traditional phone business and 8% in the data space.

Seidenberg also said FiOS TV will expand in California, New York and Massachusetts.