MTG to hand over shopping channel

Scandinavian broadcaster Modern Times Group (MTG) is to sell shopping channel TV Shop to direct response TV company Guthy-Renker Europe for SEK70.3m (US$10.3m).

MTG subsidiary MTG Homeshopping will sell 100% of the issued shares of TV Shop, with the transaction expected to close within two months. MTG has also committed to sell airtime on Viasat channels to TV Shop for two years from the closure of the transaction.

TV Shop generated SEK348m of net sales in 2006 and an operating profit of SEK300,000, and currently employs 47 people.

The sale will give rise to a preliminary net gain of about SEK10m to MTG and will be reported in the company’s results for the second quarter and six months ended 30 June, 2007

Hans-Holger Albrecht, president and CEO of MTG, said: “TV Shop was launched by MTG back in 1989, and has grown to become one of Europe’s leading direct response television channel businesses, reaching over 100 million homes in over 50 countries. The sale of the business to a leading player in the DRTV industry is in line with our focus on our core broadcasting assets and the ongoing streamlining of our operations.”