MGM Chief Shows Interest in Paxson at ‘Right Price’

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. Chief Executive Alex Yemenidjian expressed interest Wednesday in acquiring Paxson Communications Corp. if the movie company could buy Paxson for a low-enough price.

“I think Paxson would fit very well with MGM with the right structure and the right price,” Yemenidjian said at the UBS Warburg Media Week conference in New York.

He spoke a day after Paxson, owner of 65 U.S. television stations, asked the Federal Communications Commission to block General Electric Co.’s plan to have its NBC-TV unit buy Spanish-language television broadcaster Telemundo Communications Group Inc.

Paxson said NBC’s purchase of Telemundo would create regulatory obstacles to its buying Paxson, violating a 1999 agreement that gave NBC a minority stake in Paxson.

Paxson, based in West Palm Beach, Fla., can’t negotiate an acquisition by MGM or any other company until its dispute with NBC is resolved, Chief Executive Jeffrey Sagansky said.

A coalition of Latino advocates and media groups joined Paxson on Tuesday in an attempt to block NBC’s purchase of Telemundo.

The groups--the National Council of La Raza, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the National Latino Media Council, the Mexican American Grocers Assn. and the National Hispanic Media Coalition--petitioned the FCC to deny the sale to NBC.

NBC owns 32% of Paxson and has an option to acquire more of the company’s network and station group if regulatory rules change.

In its petition, the Latino coalition said media consolidation has a detrimental effect on diversity, program content and minority ownership.

For Santa Monica-based MGM, owning Paxson would provide “very valuable shelf space for our content,” Yemenidjian said. The operator of the PAX broadcast network could show TV programs and movies produced by MGM.

MGM owns interests in 14 TV channels outside the U.S. In April, the company bought a 20% stake in four U.S. cable networks, American Movie Classics, Bravo, Independent Film Channel and Women’s Entertainment, from Cablevision Systems Corp.’s Rainbow Media Group.

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Meg James and Bloomberg News