[JohnnyBB]

Today was closeing day for any serious bids to buy channel 5 the home of big brother,

The only news ive heard today is that ITV have pulled out of makeing an offer.

Anyone heard anything from the discovery/bskyb joint bid?

[duclos]

I'm trying to look for anything at all but found nothing

[mrmattybeck1]

Rumoured to be a joint sky/discovery bid with discovery providing the programmes and sky the advertising good news possibley for bb fans

[michael21]

it seem odd there no news on this i wonder if the bids were high another

[michael21]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4de32a4c-a...#axzz2ufFjzLYc

February 28, 2014 10:03 pm
US cable groups join bidding for Channel 5
By Ed Hammond in New York and Matthew Garrahan in Los Angeles
A trio of US cable network owners have entered the race to buy Channel 5, the UK television broadcaster owned by media baron Richard Desmond.
Viacom, Discovery Communications and ...

Viacom

[michael21]

i found a better one

February 28, 2014 10:03 pm
US cable groups join bidding for Channel 5
By Ed Hammond in New York and Matthew Garrahan in Los Angeles
A trio of US cable network owners have entered the race to buy Channel 5, the UK television broadcaster owned by media baron Richard Desmond.
Viacom, Discovery Communications and Scripps Networks all put forward bids for the company on Thursday, according to people familiar with the process. The sale also drew an offer from Saban Capital, the media-focused private equity group that owns Univision Communications, the largest Spanish-language broadcaster in the US.
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The exact value of the first round bids could not be ascertained, but Channel 5 is seeking a sale price of about £700m ($1.17bn). All of the parties involved declined to comment on the process.
The transatlantic interest highlights the competition for mainstream broadcast assets in Europe, particularly those that stream English-language programming.
The auction, which is being managed by Barclays, has also attracted bids from European buyers, according to people familiar with the process. ITV, one of Channel 5’s largest competitors in the UK, ruled out a making a bid of its own earlier this week.
The John Malone-backed Discovery Communications had been in talks with BSkyB over joining a bid for Channel 5 – a move that would give America’s so-called “cable cowboy” a foothold in UK free-to-air broadcasting.
The Discovery-BSkyB talks were said to have focused on BSkyB taking over Channel 5’s advertising sales operation.
After buying Channel 5 for £104m in 2010, the cigar-chomping Mr Desmond ruthlessly cut overheads and renegotiated programming contracts. He has also sharpened the image of the channel once known for its adult content, reruns and low-quality news.
Perhaps Channel 5’s biggest success has been to revive Big Brother, the reality television show, although it has lacked the financial muscle to acquire other franchises. In 2013 its ratings, calculated over seven days, beat those of its rival Channel 4 for the first time ever.

[BBfanUSA]

Viacom ironically is the sister company of the BBUSA Broadcaster. Wouldn't mean that they would broadcast BBUS or affect BBUK I think but that's an interesting fact

Personally given that BB is the biggest show on C5. I don't think the new owners would axe it immeadiatly.

[cheeky_monkey]

I really do hope BBUK stays on Channel 5

[Rob!]

700 million seems like an insane amount of money for a channel (or set of channels) that rarely hits above 2.5 million, except for literally one show. Mind you, I know very little about this side of things.