The price of owning a piece of Twenty-First Century Fox was too high for Comcast shareholders to swallow, according to the company’s CEO Brian Roberts.

Calling the opportunity to own Fox’s film and television assets “unique,” Roberts lamented the fact that Comcast lost the bidding war to Disney, which ponied up $71.3 billion for the company.

“In the case of Fox, it was a unique opportunity. We were very disciplined in our approach to it,” Roberts said on Comcast’s second-quarter earnings call. “We thought it [the acquisition] was mostly about the international expansion opportunity … But ultimately, we pulled back because we thought that we couldn’t build enough shareholder value by making the price, at which it seemed in our judgment to buy it at, increasing.”

Comcast dropped out of the bidding war last week in order to set its sights on Sky, the European satellite TV provider.

“We’re focused on Sky now,” Roberts said. “We think it’s a great business. It will fit well, it’s a good use of capital, it’s also unique. I don’t want to say anything else today.”

Comcast and Fox, and now by association Disney, are still battling it out to own London-based Sky. Fox owns 39 percent of Sky and, if it prevails in winning full control of the company, would pass it on to the Mouse House as part of its deal to sell its entertainment assets.

Comcast’s latest bid for Sky is $34 billion — topping the $32.5 billion bid from Fox, which is expected to come back with a sweetened offer within 60 days.

In the meantime, Comcast reported a 22 percent jump in second-quarter profits, to $3.22 billion, or 69 cents a share. Adjusted EPS totaled 65 cents, beating Wall Street’s expectations by 4 cents. Revenue rose 2.1 percent, to $21.74 billion, as the company added 260,000 high-speed internet customers during the period.

However, Comcast lost 140,000 video consumers.

Shares of Comcast rose 4.2 percent, to $29.60, in midday trading Thursday.