Zee, India Today in talks with to buy NDTV Profit

LiveMint has reported that Zee Group and and TV Today Network Ltd are in talks to buy New Delhi Television Ltd’s business channel NDTV Profit. It has also been reported there is another buyer in the race as well.

There has been no official comment from either of the companies.

An NDTV official was quoted as saying, “If a good deal comes by, NDTV will certainly consider it. If the valuation is attractive, then the group may also consider selling the lifestyle channel as well”. It is not clear immediately what would be the terms of sale since most of the news resources are shared by all the news channels of NDTV.

NDTV will have to wait for the finalization of the sale anyway, since the company will prefer to wait for the second phase of digitization to completed. Zee TV and TV Today do not have any presence in the English News space, and the business news segment is currently dominated by CNBC-TV18. An Edelweiss Capital analyst is quoted as saying the news channel space just the right segment for consolidation. “We can expect some consolidation in this genre as some big broadcasters and some business houses may be keen to have their own business news channel.”

Another media news website has however reported there are no such talks on between the two companies presently. Therefore, the NDTV statement can simply be seen as a sign of being open to the business news channel from the NDTV being acquired from other companies. The media website quotes an NDTV official as saying, “We are not going to entirely sell NDTV Profit. We are looking at a minority strategic investor if it comes at the right value. We are not in talks with Zee or TV Today".

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/programme-news/item/504-zee-india-today-in-talks-with-to-buy-ndtv-profit.html