NBC, owned by General Electric, is said to be close to reaching a deal and it is thought it could be finalised some time this week.
Bravo shows mainly arts programming, re-runs of popular series such as 'Twin Peaks' and 'The Larry Sanders Show', as well as the British hit 'Cold Feet'. The channel reaches around 60m subscribers to US pay TV.
Cablevision is understood to be disposing of assets as it looks at launching a satellite television business. However, the deal with NBC will be based around swapping assets, not cash, with NBC reportedly planning to swap most or all of its stake in Rainbow Media Holdings, the Cablevision programming subsidiary that owns Bravo, for full ownership of the Bravo channel.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which owns 20% of Rainbow Media, is expected to get about $250m in cash from the sale, while the deal will enable Cablevision to square up its balance sheet.
Analysts in the US have speculated that this sale could be followed by the disposal of other units of Cablevision's Rainbow Media unit, including American Movie Classics.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
