News Corp studies Google-MySpace ad deal renewal

Miller was speaking yesterday at the All Things Digital conference in Carlsbad, California, alongside MySpace's new chief executive Owen Van Natta.

The $900m three-year deal giving Google the exclusive right to sell search ads on the Fox digital network, which includes MySpace, is set to expire in around a year and a half, according to Van Natta.

Recent reports claim that Google is attempting to renegotiate the deal at a significant discount.

Miller said: "When it comes time to negotiate, one of the things that can be helpful is looking at it from the overall News Corp perspective."

The revenue from Google is understood to form a big chunk of MySpace's income, though Van Natta said it amounted to less than half of it.

Van Natta, who joined MySpace only last month, also talked about his task at what is now the world's number two social network after Facebook, admitting that "we're certainly not the darling of the press right now".

"When I look at MySpace there's just so much opportunity to build. I took the job because there's a lot more that can be done around innovation."

Van Natta was previously chief revenue officer at Facebook. He joined MySpace after its founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson stepped down from their jobs earlier than their previously agreed leaving date of October.