Virgin could sell its TV operation
03 March 2008 09:57
A leaner Virgin Media would concentrate on VoD, telephony and broadband but any plan is in tentative first stagesVirgin Media has appointed Goldman Sachs to examine its TV division with a view to auctioning part or all of the operation, reports The Sunday Times. Analysts believe a sale of Virgin Media Television, which includes channels UKTV Gold, Trouble, Bravo and Living could raise £800m. Five owner RTL, BSkyB and NBC Universal would be potential interested buyers, the paper reports. Any sale would be complicated by change-of-control rights over UKTV held by BBC Worldwide. The BBC's commercial arm owns a half share of UKTV - which includes channels UKTV Gold and UKTV History - and could itself become a bidder. Acting CEO Neil Berkett has signalled that the group sees owning content as less of a priority than marketing video on demand, telephony and fast broadband. However Virgin Media may retain parts of the division, which has annual sales of £366m, and even search for acquisitions of its own. The company considered a sale of its content arm, then called Flextech, when NTL merged with Telewest in 2005 to create Virgin.
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