Greece's Antenna Confirms Interest In UK Broadcaster Five

13th Jul 2010 13:46

By Alkman Granitsas Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES ATHENS (Dow Jones)--Greece's Antenna Group, one of the country's leading broadcasters, Tuesday confirmed its interest in U.K. broadcaster Five and is considering a binding offer for the company. Antenna, in a consortium with Dutch TV tycoon John de Mol, is one of a long list of interested parties that have submitted preliminary, non-binding offers for Five, which is being sold off by its parent, Germany's RTL Group SA (RTL.BT). Investment bank JP Morgan, which is handling the sale on behalf of RTL, has called for the submission of binding final offers. A preferred bidder is expected to be named towards the end of the summer. "Antenna has expressed an interest in the potential sale of Five by RTL and has joined forces with Dutch media businessman John de Mol in submitting a non-binding, preliminary bid," an Antenna spokesperson told Dow Jones Newswires. "We are now in the process of conducting due diligence with binding offers due by next week." According to sources familiar with the matter, controversial U.K. media businessman Richard Desmond, publisher of the Daily Express newspaper, has emerged as a possible front-runner for the company. Other interested parties are said to include ITV PLC (ITV.LN), the U.K.'s largest free-to-air commercial broadcaster, and Channel 4, a commercial broadcaster that operates under government license to provide "public service" television. British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC (BSY), in which News Corp. (NWS), publisher of this newswire, owns nearly 39%, has been reported to be looking at Five but its interest in the process remains unclear. News Corp is currently in the process of trying to acquire the remaining 61% it doesn't own in BSkyB. One person familiar with the matter said at least one U.S. broadcaster is expected to submit an offer for Five. The guide price for Five is in the region of about GBP100 million, people said, although several people familiar with the matter said that actual offers could be considerably lower. According to the source at Antenna, Five, which has struggled in recent years, is saddled with relatively high programming costs having outbid rivals for popular programming like U.S.-series CSI and House, as well as BBC-produced Neighbours. "There is a long list of interested parties in Five that are now participating in the due diligence process," said the spokesperson. "Right now all the bidders are trying to evaluate the broadcaster, taking into account some of the long-term content deals Five has entered into, but which are quite onerous by industry standards." "We have heard talk of Five selling for around GBP100 million, but I think its impossible to evaluate the company until we get to the bottom of some of these content contracts," he added. Company Web site: www.antennagroup.gr -By Alkman Granitsas, Dow Jones Newswires; +30 210 331 2881; [email protected] (Jessica Hodgson in London contributed to this article.) (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 13, 2010 08:46 ET (12:46 GMT)