Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and Telstra have postponed their planned $8 billion initial public offering of Foxtel until 2017 due to the sheer volume of work that needs to be done to prepare their structurally challenged pay television joint venture for a sharemarket listing.

Sources say that plans for an IPO in the second half of 2016, revealed by Fairfax Media in March, have been scrapped, with advisors now working to a less aggressive timetable for the deal including a pre-float merger of Foxtel with Fox Sports, which is owned by News Corp.