No Deadline at Fox Network, Executive Says : Earlier Indication Was Turn Profit or Fold

News Corp., the Rupert Murdoch-controlled company that owns the fledgling Fox television network, said Friday that it has set “no hard and fast” deadline for a turnaround at the 14-month-old network, despite anticipated losses of about $65 million for the year ending June 30.

Richard A. Sarazen, News Corp.’s chief financial officer, backed off statements made to securities analysts a day earlier in New York, when he was quoted as saying: “If it doesn’t improve dramatically in the next six months, we’ll close it down.”

In a telephone interview Friday, Sarazen said: “My comments at the analyst meeting were taken completely out of context. . . . The company is reasonably happy with the progress at the moment, and while it has not fulfilled all expectations to date . . . the company expects it to be successful.”

Networks Hurting

As reported in Investor’s Daily, Sarazen’s six-month timetable could have triggered a “self-fulfilling prophecy,” according to one West Coast analyst who did not attend the analysts’ meeting in Manhattan. Some of the network’s 121 affiliates might not wait six months to search for programming alternatives, he said.

The network has faced doom-saiers from the start because its launch coincided with financial difficulties at two established networks, CBS and ABC. Overall, networks have been losing their share of television households to competitors such as videocassettes, cable television and independent stations.

Even though Fox garners a far smaller fraction of the viewing audience, it faces similar programming costs as CBS, NBC and ABC because it pays essentially the same fees to Hollywood producers for network series.

Nevertheless Fox outlined plans last month to add a third night of programming next year.

A Fox spokesman declined Friday to comment on Sarazen’s remarks, but Fox Chairman Barry Diller told The Times this spring that it might take three to five years before Fox Broadcasting Co. turned a profit.