By Robert MacMillan

The restructuring will combine Fox's creative production divisions in a single unit that will report to Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman, co-chairmen of Fox Filmed Entertainment. The group will include Twentieth Century Fox Television and Fox Television Studios.

Tony Vinciquerra, head of the cable networks business, and the business aspects of Fox International Channels and Fox Broadcasting, will gain programing responsibility at Fox Broadcasting as Peter Liguori steps down, News Corp said.

The company does not anticipate layoffs as a result of the restructuring, according to a source on Thursday, who requested anonymity because the person was not authorized to share that detail.

The moves come after News Corp said Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin said he would leave the company in June.

Chernin, 57, is a well regarded Hollywood executive who has supervised the Los Angeles-based Fox businesses. After he leaves to start a Fox-based production company, Murdoch will supervise Fox himself.

"I think what they're trying to do is get the house in order so when the vacuum is created from Peter leaving, there is a structure in place that is efficient and lets them carry on business as usual," said RBC Capital Markets analyst David Bank.

Peter Rice, president of movie studio Fox Searchlight, will replace Liguori as chairman of entertainment at Fox Broadcasting and report to Vinciquerra.

Rice has long been considered a rising star among the ranks of 20th Century Fox film executives, starting at the company as a marketing intern in the mid-1980s.

For years, he has run the company's Fox Searchlight specialty movie division that has been responsible for hits including "Sideways," "Little Miss Sunshine," and most recently, Oscar winner "Slumdog Millionaire."

News Corp, which also owns the New York Post, Wall Street Journal parent company Dow Jones & Co, the Sky Italia satellite TV network and a variety of other businesses around the world, has been struggling because of advertising revenue declines that the financial crisis and recession have exacerbated.

The company has been cutting jobs at some of its businesses, and has been the target of Wall Street ire for Murdoch's insistence on keeping his newspapers, even as ad revenue plummets. News Corp's shares have fallen 68.5 percent in the past 12 months.

Earlier this month, MySpace's chief operating officer and other executives left to form their own company. The company also has been struggling with Wall Street's perception that its luster is fading among young people as they spend time on rival site Facebook and other social networks.

Roger Ailes will continue as chairman and chief executive of the Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, and Peter Levinsohn continues to run Fox Interactive Media, which includes online social network MySpace.

News Corp shares closed 14 cents higher at $5.85.

(Additional reporting by Bob Tourtellotte in Los Angeles. Editing by Andre Grenon, Bernard Orr)