Virgin Media has begun the sale of its content division, issuing a sales memorandum for its Virgin Media TV business and sales house IDS, although it is excluding its 50% stake in UKTV.
It is understood that the UKTV stake will be sold when there is a clearer picture of the future of joint owner BBC Worldwide, which is in talks with Channel 4 over a possible joint venture.
It had been thought that Virgin wanted to sell its content operations in one go for an estimated £500 million; however, last week it announced the sale of its TV shopping channels business Sit-up TV, to Aurelias for an undisclosed sum.
Virgin Media values its share in UKTV at £367.7 million.
