Private equity firm OpenGate Capital has sold TVGM Holdings L.L.C., owner of iconic, former household staple TV Guide. It has been purchased by NTVB Media, publisher of TV Weekly.
The sale, which combines TV Guide’s current 1.8M subscribers with NTVB’s roster of 1M subscribers, effectively establishes NTVB as the nation’s largest publisher of consumer television magazines.
The terms of the deal, which also includes purchase of site TVInsider.com, were not disclosed.
In a statement, NTVB CEO Andy DeAngelis said acquiring the publication allows NTVB to offer advertisers and programmers an effective means of reaching diverse segments of today’s TV audiences.
"TV Guide Magazine has played an important role in television entertainment and pop culture for more than 60 years and is the perfect complement to our suite of media brands," DeAngelis said. "Now more than ever viewers need a trusted guide to the vast array of available programming. By adding TVGM to our existing roster of TV-centric publications, we will be able to do more than anyone else to help them cut through the clutter and find the programming they want and value."
Besides TV Weekly, NTVB also publishes cable and satellite publications such as Channel Guide Magazine, DISH Entertainment Magazine and VIEW! magazine, as well as online publications TVWeeklyNow.com and ChannelGuidemag.com.
TV Guide published its first issue in 1953, and the digest-sized weekly soon became a household name, peaking with a circulation of 20 million in the 1970s. It was sold in 1988 to News Corp. for $3 billion, accounting for one of the largest media acquisitions at the time.
Gemstar purchased the publication a decade later, but rising debt caused that company to sell the print portion of the brand in 2008 to OpenGate, famously, for $1. CBS in 2013 acquired its remaining digital assets for $100M.
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