TV Guide Network Being Sold Separately From Mag; Book Finally Out

(PaidContent.org)  This story was written by Rafat Ali.

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Macrovision (NSDQ: MVSN) has finally put the book out for the formal sale of TV Guide Network, according to Variety. The channel includes its flagship TV scrolling IPG, distributed in about 80 million homes in U.S., and the much-smaller TVG Horse Race Network, and the story says could fetch a relatively-small $400 million for the sale due to the financial market and economy turmoil. TVGN had total revenues of about $129 million last year. Among the companies considering the channel are Constellation Ventures, the NYC-based media focused VC firm, the story says. Not much interest from the usual suspects Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), News Corp (NYSE: NWS). and Disney (NYSE: DIS). UBS is running the process for Macrovision.

MVSN acquired Gemstar-TV Guide earlier this year for about $2.8 billion, and has been divesting off the non-core assets since then, including TV Guide magazine and the TV channels. Things certainly have taken a nosedive since then...as Multichannel points out, based on Macrovision's breakdown of the deal when the sale completed in April, TV Guide Network was valued at $408 million, TVG Network at $112 million, the magazine at $61 million and online networks at $32 million. Together, that would put the value of a deal at about $613 million.




By Rafat Ali