UK supermarket chain Asda and News International, the British arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., have announced a new deal that features the return of NI-owned The Sunday Times to 260 Asda stores, following a week-long disappearance, MediaWeek reported today.

NI recently increased the cover price of the weekend title by £0.20 to £2.20. Last week, the publisher decided that it would have £0.183 of the price increase while retailers just a little over 1 pence or £ 0.017, which constitutes 23.5 percent. Asda responded by claiming that it should have £0.5, or 25 percent of the cover price, as it previously did.

Asda pointed out that NI made an "acceptable proposal." However an NI official said that the publisher "sold to all retailers at the same price," MediaWeek informed. If thedeal did in fact go through, Asda's competitors such as Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons might be suffering defeat, Media Week suggested.

NI owns The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun and News of The World. According to the Guardian, the collective circulation of the titles amounts to 37 percent of the country's newspaper circulation. In 2009, The Times and The Sunday Times saw losses of nearly £87.7 million.