Virgin Media sells £339m stake in UKTV
UK telecoms giant Virgin Media has sold its stake in UKTV – home of channels including Dave, Gold and Yesterday – to a US broadcaster for £339m (€385m).
The 50% stake has been bought by Tennessee-based Scripps Network Interactive, which runs US lifestyle TV brands such as Food Network and Cooking Channel.
The deal will give the BBC, which through its subsidiary BBC Worldwide owns the remaining 50% stake, the chance to push its holding up to 60%.
Virgin, which runs broadband, cable and phone services in the UK, sold its own channels, which included Bravo and Virgin 1, to rival Sky in a £160m (€181.7m) deal last year.
