Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp, said on Wednesday he expected to have worked out a strategy for internet search and an internet voice service “within weeks”.

Mr Murdoch said he was still weighing whether to buy companies in these areas – two obvious gaps that have not yet been filled by News Corp’s recent internet acquisition spree – or whether to set up some kind of partnership. “We still have to decide what to do on search and VoIP (voice over internet protocol).”

He added that News Corp had a “couple of companies under offer” but the amounts involved were “peanuts”. He would not be drawn on names. On the search side, News Corp is believed to have had talks with video search company Blinkx, among others.

Mr Murdoch, who has embraced the internet this year, said he expected free telephony to be “ubiquitous with two to three years” – much sooner than others are predicting.

In comments made to investors at a Goldman Sachs conference, Mr Murdoch said the telephony services provided by companies like Skype and Vonage were technically simple. Although News Corp had discussions with Skype, which was bought by Ebay earlier this months for up to $4.1bn, he said he would never have paid that much.

He suggested there might be other deals in the works such as with wireless services which would allow DirecTV, the satellite operator one-third owned by News Corp, to offer a “triple-play” to customers. Cable rivals already offer high-speed internet, telephony and television services to many of their customers.

“It’s a problem we are facing and (DirecTV) is working very hard on it - within a measurable amount of time we will be able to face that triple-play,” he said.