Print this Article
RSSThe Knoxville News-Sentinel
By The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn.
Sep. 26--After selling its Shop At Home network's Nashville studios and other assets to Knoxville-based Jewelry Television in June, the E.W. Scripps Co. said this morning it is selling the network's five affiliated broadcast television stations.
Multicultural Television Broadcasting LLC is paying $170 million for the stations in Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Boston; Cleveland; San Francisco; and Bridgeport, Conn.
The transaction is expected to be completed over the next nine months, pending Federal Communications Commission approval.
Shop At Home was founded in Newport in 1986 to sell satellite equipment to satellite TV viewers. The operation was moved in 1992 to Knoxville and reported sales of $100.5 million when it moved to Nashville in 1998.
Scripps acquired Shop At Home in two transactions with a total value of about $285 million, acquiring controlling interest in October 2002 and buying the remaining interest in April 2004 along with the five Shop At Home-affiliated TV stations.
Scripps hoped the channel would provide a shopping outlet for products related to Scripps' cable networks Home & Garden Television (HGTV), Food Network, Do It Yourself Network and Fine Living. The cable networks are based in Knoxville.
Shop At Home incurred millions in losses, however.
Jewelry Television bought its assets for $17 million.
Multicultural Television is a new limited liability company in New York City formed by Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Inc., which has radio stations, publications, cable and satellite television operations in more than 20 languages.
Cincinnati-based Scripps' properties also include the Great American Country cable network, 10 other broadcast television stations, online search and comparison shopping services Shopzilla and uSwitch, and newspapers in 18 markets, including the News Sentinel.
-----
To see more of The Knoxville News-Sentinel or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.knoxnews.com.
Copyright (c) 2006, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
SSP,
