Scripps to Expand into India

CINCINNATI: Scripps Networks Interactive has acquired a 69-percent stake in NDTV Group’s lifestyle programming subsidiary, NDTV Lifestyle.

NDTV Group retains the remaining 31 percent. NDTV Lifestyle is anchored by NDTV Good Times, India’s top-ranked English-language lifestyle channel. The $55 million transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter 2010. 

“We know our lifestyle brands play well around the globe, and NDTV Good Times channel and NDTV Lifestyle serve as sturdy platforms for us to build lifestyle television programming businesses in one of the world’s most promising media marketplaces,” said Greg Moyer, the president of Scripps Networks International. “With the NDTV Group, we’ve chosen a knowledgeable, highly respected partner that has a deep understanding of what it takes to engage and delight media consumers in India. This partnership gives us tremendous entrée to India’s television-viewing and Internet-browsing public.”

The NDTV deal is the latest in Scripps’s international expansion efforts. The company struck two other partnerships recently that will result in significant distribution of the Scripps-owned Food Network in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Food Network launched earlier this month on Sky in the U.K. and is slated to launch in Asia on January 1, 2010.