Discovery Communications has dropped out of bidding to purchase Britain's free-to-air Channel 5, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Discovery, which has been aggressively expanding outside of the United States in television, had been in talks with British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc over a possible joint bid, according to media reports.It was unclear on Wednesday whether BSkyB was still involved in the process. Representatives from BSkyB and Channel 5 could not immediately be reached for a comment outside of regular working hours.Channel 5, which broadcasts "Big Brother," was bought by Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell media group in 2010 for 103.5 million pounds and made a profit of 20.6 million pounds in the first half of 2013, up from a loss of 16.1 million a year earlier.Media reports in January said Desmond had hired Barclays to look for buyers for the television network and was expecting to raise about 700 million pounds.
Discovery Communications, Inc. (Discovery) is a global nonfiction media and entertainment company that provide programming across multiple distribution platforms worldwide. Shares of DISCA traded higher by 1.38% or $1.06/share to $77.86. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $72.77 and as high as $90.76. On average, 1622820 shares of DISCA exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 976703.
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