NEW YORK, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Media mogul John Malone said the U.S. No.1 satellite TV operator DirecTV Group is not up for sale in an interview with business cable network CNBC on Friday.
But Malone, who is chairman of DirecTV, said a combination of the satellite company with either AT&T Inc or Verizon Communications Inc would be "doable" from a regulatory perspective.
"I can be the first one to say DirecTV is not for sale," said Malone, who is the largest individual shareholder in DirecTV.
The satellite company appointed former PepsiCo executive Mike White as chief executive earlier this week.
"If somebody wants to buy DirectTV, they can call up Mike White or me and we'll talk to them," he added.
Malone's Liberty Media split off DirecTV on Thursday to combine it with some its cable network assets creating an independent and larger DirecTV. This has sparked speculation the new company could be bought by one of the phone companies .
But as the second largest pay-TV company in the U.S. many observers expect a combination with a telephone company would have a difficult regulatory passage.
"It would probably require some concessions," Malone said in the interview. "It would take a while and you wouldn't know the outcome for a while. So you wouldn't go down that road without thinking it through."

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke; editing by Andre Grenon)

((e-mail:yinka.adegoke@thomsonreuters.com Reuters Messaging: Yinka.adegoke.reuters.com@reuters.net +1 646 223 6081)) Keywords: DIRECTV/ (Click on http://blogs.reuters.com/category/themes/mediafile/ to see Reuters MediaFile blog)

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