According to reports, the BBC's commercial arm has begun talks with private equity firms including Cinven, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Providence Equity Partners about a joint bid for Virgin Media Television. In all, 10 equity firms are reported to have submitted bids to work with BBC Worldwide.
The Virgin's TV channels are valued at £800m and BBC Worldwide needs a partner because its borrowings are capped at £350m.
The bid includes the 50% share of UKTV that the BBC does not already own, but it also a number of other channels such as LivingTV, Virgin 1 and Bravo, which together air shows such as 'Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles' and 'The Unit', as well as a range of BBC programmes such as 'Planet Earth', 'Top Gear', 'QI' and 'Spooks'.
Last week, UKTV signed a multimillion-pound deal with TV duo Richard and Judy to front a new primetime talk show on one of its pay-TV channels.
Interest from BBC Worldwide follows a report in early March that Virgin Media was carrying out a review of its TV channels after appointing Goldman Sachs.
Other potential bidders could include BSkyB, ITV, Five owner RTL and NBC Universal, the US broadcaster that bought Hallmark channel owner Sparrowhawk last year.
A sale of its content arm would leave Virgin Media free to concentrate on offering consumers pay TV, broadband, telephony and mobile.
BBC Worldwide is in a prime position to acquire the channels because any change of ownership of UKTV needs to have its approval, making it the ideal owner and would give it a major digital TV platform.
It would also have the freedom to expand the channels internationally without the agreement of Virgin Media, whose operations are solely focused on the UK market.
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