In a move that aims to counter consolidation among TV distributors, Rupert Murdoch's Fox has made an unsolicited takeover offer for its rival media giant Time Warner for $76 billion in cash and stock. This move is the one that aims to counter consolidation among the distributers of TV.

Time Warner has rejected the bid which amounted to almost $86.30 per share but an analyst called it just an attempt in a courtship that would make the combined firm as big as Disney in its market value.

The rejected cash-and-stock offer comes on the proposed $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable Inc. by Comcast Corp which was made in February. It also comes after AT&T announced that it agreed to buy DirecTV for $48.5 billion in May.

Both deals, if they are approved would help to shift the balance of power in content negotiations to distributors because of their larger subscriber bases which could help to contain rising programming costs for sports channels. After certain divestitures, Comcast could end up in serving 30 million video customers while AT&T would serve about 26 million.

A big merger among the content owners would tilt the balance back towards the media companies.

"You can get more money negotiating together than you would separately", Janney analyst Tony Wible said. "It's a chain reaction. There will be more consolidation on the content side in response to consolidation from cable and satellite companies".

Time Warner Inc. Said on Wednesday that it had no interest in further discussions and it could create more value on its own.

Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. said that it had made the bid last month but also said that no discussions were ongoing.

Still, the stock of Time Warner jumped 17% to $83.25 on the news on Wednesday.