NEWS Corporation has agreed to sell eight of its Fox television stations in the US to private-equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners for about $US1.1 billion ($1.28 billion).
The transaction will leave Fox Television Stations with 27 owned-and-operated stations, and allow News Corporation to focus on its larger assets following its $US5.6 billion ($6.54 billion) acquisition of Dow Jones this year.
News Corp, which owns NEWS.com.au, announced in June that it had employed an adviser to help it sell nine television stations. Eight of the nine will be sold to Oak Hill, apart from WHBQ in Memphis.
The media giant's cable television division was a star performer in fiscal 2007, but free-to-air was a drag on the entire television division's earnings which fell to $US962 million ($1.12 billion) from $US1.03 billion ($1.2 billion).
The fall, however, was mainly pinned on losses from MyNetwork TV, the lowest rated of the six major US commercial broadcast networks, and lower results from Asian-based STAR.
The eight Fox Television stations that News Corp sold are in smaller urban centres like Cleveland, Denver, St Louis, Kansas City and Milwaukee. It still owns Fox stations in bigger cities like New York and Los Angeles.
The sale is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the third quarter of calendar 2008.
Oak Hill was founded over 20 years ago by Texas oil barron Robert Bass and manages over $US4.6 billion ($A5.37 billion) of private equity capital. It also owns the firm Local TV, which has nine local US television stations, and cable TV carrier Wometco Cable Corporation, which has over 30,000 subscribers.
source: news.com
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