FRANKFURT (Reuters) - British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc (L:BSY) said on Monday it was in early talks with Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox over the possible acquisition of its pay-TV assets in Germany and Italy, Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia, confirming weekend reports.
"BSkyB believes at the right value, this combination would have the potential to create a world-class multinational pay TV group," the group said in a statement.
Bloomberg had reported on Friday that Fox (O:FOXA) was in talks for such a deal, worth about 10 billion euros (8.18 billion pounds), that would turn BSkyB into a European satellite-TV giant. It quoted people familiar with the situation.
BSkyB said talks were still preliminary and no agreement has been reached on terms, value or transaction structure. It added that there was no certainty that a transaction would occur.
(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Jonathan Gould)