ENTERTAINMENT : TCI Says It’s Not Interested in MCA : Hollywood: Speculation continues over whether Seagram is the most likely suitor for the studio.

John Malone, president of Tele-Communications Inc., said his company is not interested in acquiring the MCA Inc. movie studio from its parent company in Japan, Matsushita Electric Industrial.

“We’re not buying MCA,” Malone said Tuesday. “I haven’t met with Matsushita in 14 months.”

TCI, the giant cable company, previously held talks with the Japanese-based conglomerate, reportedly regarding a possible sale of all or part of its MCA studio.

Attention continues to focus on Seagram Co. and its chief executive, Edgar M. Bronfman Jr., as the most likely suitor for MCA.

Seagram’s stock dropped $1.875 to $28 a share as investor skepticism greeted the news that the company is considering selling its 25% stake in DuPont, worth about $10 billion, in order to buy or gain control of MCA. DuPont gained 62.5 cents to $61.625. Time Warner Inc. fell 50 cents to $37.

Sources at MCA, who have been kept in the dark during negotiations, said Seagram is the only name even being mentioned in the hallways. Sources said they expect a deal within two weeks or not at all. The current chaos in the currency markets and potential resistance from Seagram shareholders and directors could hinder any deal.

Meanwhile, the Kyodo News Service, quoting unnamed industry sources, said that although regular top-level meetings between the two companies in Los Angeles had been canceled, Matsushita Vice President Tsuzo Murase planned to visit Los Angeles to speak with MCA Chairman Lew Wasserman and President Sidney Sheinberg.

Malone, speaking to reporters after giving a speech at an investment conference sponsored by the Wertheim Schroder investment firm and Variety trade publication, said that although his company has “wonderful relationships” with Matsushita, TCI is more interested in forging relationships for programming than in buying a major studio outright.

“We’ve never been interested in (simply) acquiring a major studio,” he said. If Matsushita “had come to us and said, ‘Let’s do a global entertainment network based on the Universal library,’ ” TCI would have been interested, Malone said, adding, “Ted Turner is our principal studio play.” TCI is a part owner of Turner Broadcasting.

Turner, who has long wanted to buy a broadcast network and has been in discussions recently to buy CBS, joked during a speech at the conference: “I may not get that over-the-air network until I don’t want it. . . . I believe I will be offered one, though.”

But Malone implied that the Turner-CBS talks had hit some obstacles. Talks between TCI and Time Warner, a part owner of Turner’s company, to sell Time Warner’s interest in TBS are “quiescent,” Malone said.

Noting that each of the three parties would need to see additional value out of changing its ownership structure, Malone said: “If Ted can’t convince himself there’s a reason to change the ownership structure, what’s the point of changing it? . . . Maybe he’s concluded that he’s not going to do a network deal at favorable terms” at this time.

Turner said he was leaving the conference to meet with “big potential investors about buying a piece of our company.” He declined to elaborate further.

Times staff writers James Bates in Los Angeles and David Holley in Japan contributed to this report.