BSkyB Makes Large Bid for Virgin Media Channels

LONDON: British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) has reportedly made a £160-million ($258-million) bid for a package of seven digital television channels owned by Virgin Media, which is 60-percent higher than rival bidders.

Other companies bidding on the package of channels—Living, Living Two, Bravo, Bravo Two, Challenge, Challenge Jackpot and Virgin1—include Channel 4, the RTL Group, owner of Five, Time Warner and NBC Universal. None of these companies bid more than £100 million.

Analysts have valued the package at between £100 million and £130 million, according to the Financial Times.

Industry insiders believe it will be difficult for Virgin Media to accept BSkyB’s offer given the dispute over carriage the two companies were involved in last year, which led to a 20-month hiatus in the availability of channels such as Sky1 and Sky News to Virgin Media’s cable TV subscribers.

Speculation is that BSkyB is driving up the price of any rival bidder, to make sure that whoever buys the Virgin package—especially if it’s a direct competitor such as Channel 4 or Five—has to pay the highest price possible.