March 24 (Bloomberg) -- News Corp.'s Fox network says it won't pay a $91,000 indecency fine imposed by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for a 2003 broadcast featuring strippers at bachelor and bachelorette parties.

Fox is filing a petition today on behalf of the 13 owned and affiliated television stations asking the agency to reconsider the fine, spokesman Scott Grogin said in an e-mailed statement.

The April 7 program ``Married by America'' on News Corp.'s Fox network was ``pandering and titillating,'' the FCC said in an order posted on its Web site Feb. 22. The FCC said at the time the penalty would apply only to stations named in viewer complaints, rather than all Fox stations that aired the program.

``The FCC's decision in this case was arbitrary and capricious, inconsistent with precedent and patently unconstitutional,'' Grogin said.

The FCC in 2004 sought fines for 169 Fox stations or affiliates for the episode, in which strippers' breasts were electronically obscured.

News Corp. Class A shares, down 7.5 percent this year, rose 58 cents to $18.96 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gillian Wee in New York at gwee3@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 24, 2008 16:31 EDT