Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said he believes the European satellite TV business is growing and has the potential to grow more, in stark contrast to U.S. satellite TV companies that have seen their business erode rapidly.

Comcast surprised the Street when it announced its bid for British satellite giant Sky, an attempt to out-fox 21st Century Fox’s own offer for the company. Fox owns a 39% stake in Sky and has been trying for months to acquire the remaining 61% of the company, but has faced some push back from U.K. regulators.

Investors didn’t seem too pleased with the prospect of a mogul war between Roberts and Fox’s Rupert Murdoch, who likely will up his bid for the satellite company in response. Comcast shares were down 4.1% ($1.60) to $37.98 each in early trading Tuesday. Fox shares were down less than 1% (29 cents each) to $38.52 in early trading.

In a statement, Fox said it remains committed to the offer it made for Sky on Dec. 15, 2016.

"We note that no firm offer has been made by Comcast at this point," Fox continued. "A further statement will be made if appropriate."

On a conference call with analysts to discuss the Sky bid, Roberts said despite the declines in the domestic satellite TV market, he believes the European satellite business is on a growth trajectory.

For the six months ended Dec. 31, Sky added about 365,000 new customers to its services in the U.K., Germany and Italy.

“I think it's apples and oranges,” Roberts said on the call. “From our vantage point, and for their track record, the results they just reported, there is no comparison to the satellite operator in U.S. “

Roberts added that the U.S. product is not as good as Sky, has a different competitive set and is bundled with broadband service from other providers.

“They have a pretty complete company,” Roberts said. “They’re also in an incredible and enviable position as a content aggregator, whether it’s their own content that they create, which maybe they should do more of, we’ll see overtime to the premier content they deliver to their customers. Their business has been growing, they are able to go into the over- the-top world with their Sky Now product, they can go into other markets through wireless and broadband-only, they do bundle mobile and broadband as part of their appeal to consumers. We think it’s just more like Comcast and NBCUniversal than any company we’ve seen.”

Roberts likened the Sky bid to Comcast’s purchase of NBC Universal in 2011

“Think back to the day we announced NBCU and how different 7 years later we are then we were then,” Roberts said. “People are loving content, how and where and why and how you monetize it is changing and different companies are reacting differently. What can we do together that couldn’t do alone? Stay tuned. But look at our track record. I think we look at this and say it’s a great fit.”

But the deal still has to be accepted by Sky and Fox, although it hasn’t said anything publicly at press time, is likely to make a counter offer. Roberts said on the call that he would be willing to accept 50% plus one share of Sky instead of full ownership. That could mean that Fox could keep its 39% stake in the company or transfer it to Disney as part of its overall deal to sell certain assets. Sky was believed to be an integral part of that deal, so it is still uncertain whether a Comcast win on the Sky front could throw a wrench into that deal. Comcast has been rumored to be assembling a deal for Fox’s other assets, but Roberts declined to comment on any speculation during the call.

Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts took the roundabout way in admitting the nation’s largest operator has exercised its wireless MVNO option with Verizon Communications, adding that it is likely its NBC broadcast unit will participate the upcoming spectrum auctions.

On a conference call to discuss third quarter results, Roberts said that Comcast believes wireless is an important area for the company and stressed that it takes six months after exercising the option to activate the MVNO.

“We’re going to trial some  things and test some things after we activate and we’ll update people as that progresses,” Roberts said. “But it’s an opportunity to take the network and the successful  investments we’ve  made and try to see if we can continue relationships  and product  innovation that the team is working on.”

The MVNO agreement stems from the 2011 sale of wireless licenses owned by SpectrumCo, a consortium that included Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, to Verizon for $3.6 billion. The MVNO agreement allows the cable operators to resell Verizon wireless service in their footprint.

Cable division CEO Neil Smit added that there is nothing new to report.

“We’re in test and learn mode,” Smit said.

Verizon chief financial officer Fran Shammo said during an earnings conference call Oct. 22 that one of the cable companies has exercised the MVNO agreement, but declined to identify it. Comcast had been said to been talks with Verizon about the MVNO deal and was largely believed to be the cable company that exercised the option.

Some analysts had believed that exercising the MVNO agreement meant that Comcast also would participate in the upcoming federal broadcast spectrum auctions, using those additional licenses to fill out areas the MVNO does not cover. On the call, Roberts said its NBC broadcast unit plans to participate in the auction, but as a contributor of spectrum not a buyer.

Still, Roberts left the door slightly ajar that the cable unit could participate in the auctions. But Roberts said that the cable giant does not feel the need to own the network.

“We’ve always felt it’s part of a product set, I don’t think we feel that we have to necessarily in any way seek owner’s economics,” Roberts said. “On the NBC side we intend to participate. On the cable side it’s something we will continue to study.”

Not to be a spoilsport, Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts congratulated Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks on their landmark deal Tuesday, adding that the transaction “makes all the sense in the world.”

Comcast had agreed to pay about $67 billion for TWC in February 2014, but that agreement was terminated after it became apparent that federal regulators would not approve the deal. The Charter transaction, which values TWC at $78.7 billion including debt, is expected to have an easier go of it on the regulatory front.

"This deal makes all the sense in the world,” Roberts said in a statement. “I would like to congratulate all the parties."

Whether regulators feel the same way remains to be seen, but according to reports, Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler had reached out to cable CEOs to tell them that the agency was not against all consolidation in the industry.

In an interview with CNBC this morning, Charter CEO Tom Rutledge – who will become chairman and CEO of the combined entity – wouldn’t comment on any personal conversations with Wheeler, but said the chairman’s public comments have been consistent with what the agency has said in the past as to its vision for the changing broadband landscape.

“I don't want to talk about any conversations i had with the chairman, but if you look at the public statements of the FCC, what the FCC is seeking I think is being developed by this transaction,” Rutledge told CNBC. it's not just about doing no harm; it's about bringing better services to the country and to customers and expanding the footprint upon which those services are delivered and I think that the competitive environment is enhanced by us doing this. If you look at the ecosystem, who we are playing with in terms of other competitors, they are very large. We'll still be a relatively small company compared to the large phone companies, compared to Comcast, compared to the wireless companies.  I think this is good for us. It's good for the country. i think it's consistent with what the regulators have said publically that they are looking for in these kinds of transactions.”

Not everyone was quite as enamored with the deal. In a statement, Free Press research director S. Derek Turner said the FCC should aplly lessons learned from the terminated Comcast-TWC transaction in evaluating the smaller Charter-TWC deal.

"The cable platform is quickly becoming America's local monopoly broadband infrastructure,” Turner said in a statement. “Charter will have a tough time making a credible argument that consolidating local monopoly power on a nationwide basis will benefit consumers. Indeed, the issue of the cable industry's power to harm online video competition, which is what ultimately sank Comcast’s consolidation plans, are very much at play in this deal.

"Ultimately, this merger is yet another example of the poor incentives Wall Street's quarterly-result mentality creates,” he continued. “Charter would rather take on an enormous amount of debt to pay a premium for Time Warner Cable than build fiber infrastructure, improve service for its existing customers or bring competition into new communities. We will carefully examine Charter's case, in particular its arguments for why this transaction is supposedly better for competition in the broadband and pay-TV markets than new investment. Charter needs to explain why this consolidation will improve competition, and a simple argument of scale won't work here. Charter's network is already superior to TWC's and that of other large cable companies, which proves that you don’t need to become a colossus to succeed in this business."