Scripps reportedly eyes Chellomedia

Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries

Scripps Networks Interactive is reportedly among the interested suitors looking at Liberty Global’s for-sale content business, Chellomedia.

According a Variety report, Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said – while attending an Allen & Co-organised gathering of media moguls in Sun Valley, Idaho, last week – that Chellomedia had already attracted at least eight prospective strategic buyers and eight financial bidders, though would not comment on individual buyers.

In May Liberty Global declined to comment on reports that it had put Chellomedia up for sale, following a Wall Street Journal report that said a deal could be valued at between US$800 million (€622 million) and US$1 billion.

Chellomedia has operations in 13 countries and produces and claims to distribute a portfolio of 66 TV channels internationally to more than 382 million TV households.

At the Cable Congress in London in March, Fries said that large content investments were not part of Liberty Global’s forward-looking plans, and that Chellomedia’s “strategic benefits to us are somewhat limited”.

Speaking at the Congress, Fries said that, while Chellomedia was a good business, it was “not part of our strategic plan to start investing massive amounts of capital in content providers”.