MTV Networks CEO Judy McGrath has seen Microsoft’s new iPod killer, she told attendees and reporters at the cable marketing tradeshow CTAM Summit, AdAge reported. It marks one of the first public confirmations of its existence.

It’s “really fantastic,” she told Business Week reporter Tom Lowry, who interviewed McGrath on stage at the conference in Boston. She told Lowry she had been briefed on the player. MTV confirmed the report, which mentions the competitor to Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod in the last paragraph. A Microsoft spokesman was not immediately reachable.

Sources have told Reuters that Microsoft is preparing to sell a wireless digital music and video player and launch an iTunes-like service by the end of this year.

Left unanswered is how Microsoft’s iTunes competitor will work with or compete against its own online music venture with MTV, called URGE.