Virgin Media prepares to offload its content division

[Media Boy UK]

Virgin Media is expected to begin the sale of its content division, said to be worth about £500m, within weeks.

Interested parties are thought to include BSkyB, NBC Universal, RTL Group, several private equity groups and Channel 4. The content assets were put up for sale in 2005 and bids were placed for about £1bn.

The sale of the content operation is complicated by Lord Carter's Digital Britain review, which has suggested Channel 4 should look for possible synergies with BBC Worldwide to solve its funding crisis. It is understood the broadcaster is in talks with BBC Worldwide about possibly taking on certain sales contracts from IDS to beef up its scale, price and power in the market.

It is also thought that, should a Channel 4 and IDS deal come to fruition, the appeal of Virgin Media's content division to the likes of BSkyB and RTL Group would drop, potentially eliminating these companies from the sale and affecting the price tag of Virgin's content division.

A TV executive close to Virgin said: "Two years ago, Virgin took a strategic decision to exit the content business, but it has been delayed several times. But now it is likely it will issue an information memorandum to the market after its board meeting in March."

Virgin Media, Channel 4, BSkyB, IDS and BBC Worldwide declined to comment. RTL Group was unavailable for comment.

http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/8835...tent-division/

Story from Mediaweek.

[nutellajunkie]

If virgin took the decision to exit the content business, then why is there still virgin content on the go?

[Arthurgray50@blu]

According to The Financial Times, VM are considering selling there Tv channels, So we could have a new company running the TV division, you never know, we could have a better service.

[piggy]

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

According to The Financial Times, VM are considering selling there Tv channels, So we could have a new company running the TV division, you never know, we could have a better service.

financial times? have you changed your reading habits?

The Daily Star

btw, Arthur - it's the channels (Living, Bravo, etc), not the distribution arm, so it wouldn't affect "the service".

[piggy]

Originally Posted by foreverwar

The Daily Star

thats better

[Derrick]

Would a sold channel incur a cost? Is VMs free TV with phone deal threatened?

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

According to The Financial Times, VM are considering selling there Tv channels, So we could have a new company running the TV division, you never know, we could have a better service.

Oh Arthur, another stick for you to get the wrong end of.

Virgin Media may be trying to sell off its interests in several TV channels it owns, or part-owns, but it is not trying to sell off its digital TV service through which it provides channels to you.

I could have sworn this story came up a few weeks ago, complete with exactly the same misunderstandings ...

---------- Post added at 20:43 ---------- Previous post was at 20:41 ----------

Originally Posted by Derrick

Would a sold channel incur a cost? Is VMs free TV with phone deal threatened?

The ownership of channels like Bravo and Living makes absolutely no difference to the price of your TV package or TV/phone bundle.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

IF, Vm sold the tv channels, surely that would be the end of VM, as they would only have the BB and Phone arm to deal with, And yes this subject did come up several weeks ago, If l am not wrong, VM own Living TV, so they wouldn't sell that, would they, This is starting to get confusing, I only read The Financial Times, as it was brought up on DS. I prefer, The Sun or Mirror, l have read The Telegraph, but that is a Tory paper, and l am NOT Tory.

[Stuart]

Just to back Chris up:

The company being sold off (assuming it happens) is not Virgin Media's DTV provider. It is a seperate company called "Virgin Media Television" and was previously known as Flextech. It provides the Living channels, Virgin one and is part owner of UKTV amongst others.

[Tezcatlipoca]

It's only the *channels* though that they are considering selling, not the actual Digital TV side of the business.


EDIT: Beaten by Stuart, with more detail.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

IF, Vm sold the tv channels, surely that would be the end of VM, as they would only have the BB and Phone arm to deal with, And yes this subject did come up several weeks ago, If l am not wrong, VM own Living TV, so they wouldn't sell that, would they, This is starting to get confusing, I only read The Financial Times, as it was brought up on DS. I prefer, The Sun or Mirror, l have read The Telegraph, but that is a Tory paper, and l am NOT Tory.

Just to be clear, if VM sold the TV channels, it would not mean that VM could no longer provide its television service to its subscribers. After all, VM don't own Sky, but you still receive the Sky channels via your cable box.

There may be implications for the company when they sell their channels, however. They will get in the order of £500m for that sale, and the question is, how will they use that money? They could use it to bring down their debt, to improve services to VM customers, to invest in HD or IPTV, or perhaps to buy ITV shares. Given the bitterness that flowed from Sky buying up shares in ITV in 2006, thwarting VM's plans at the time, this must still be an attraction for VM, particularly as those shares have plummeted in value and will therefore be cheaper for VM to buy.

There are synergies in these two businesses and both companies have problems - would a merger help towards solving these problems? I really have no idea!

However, I do believe that it would be a mistake for VM to put itself in a position where it had no content as part of its operation, so if it acquired ITV it would have the more lucrative ITV channels instead of the relatively minor VM and UKTV (part owned) channels as part of its business.

[WHISTLED]

All hail Arthur and I LOVE the fact you put financial times, hilarious.

One for ya critics!

[Andrewcrawford23]

I love the fact arthur always manages to make it otu that virgin are really bad and are goign to collapse. I know i have reaidng diffucult i often wodner if arthur has worse dsylexic reaidn that me

[Arthurgray50@blu]

You should try reading articles on the internet and in the media, As that is where l get my info from.,