News Corporation chief executive Robert Thomson has warned the Rupert Murdoch-controlled company will not pay "ridiculous" prices for cricket TV rights as broadcasters find it harder to justify huge increases to the hundreds of millions they are already paying for sports rights.

News Corp wholly owns sports broadcaster Fox Sports Australia, which is in the midst of a merger with pay TV provider Foxtel, as revealed by The Australian Financial Review in August. News currently owns half of Foxtel with Telstra, but the ownership structure will change to 65 per cent held by News Corp and 35 per cent by Telstra once its merger with Fox Sports is completed.