CBS Corp. now owns 100 percent of TV Guide Digital after acquiring the last half owned by Lionsgate. The move means that TVGuide.com will now join CBS Interactive, the company’s network of websites.
As we reported back in March, CBS had acquired a 50 percent stake in TV Guide Digital, sharing the property with Lionsgate. In the deal, CBS also picked up half of TVGN, the cable network formerly known as the TV Guide Network. While Lionsgate will remain a partner in the operation of TVGN, today’s deal separates TV Guide Digital.
According to The Los Angeles Times, TV Guide Digital will join CBS Interactive, which already includes the social networking site TV.com. Other properties in the group include Metacritic, Chow and Last.fm. This will also give CBS Interactive TV Guide Digital’s recently launched tablet app, which gives listings for shows that are not exclusively on TV.
“TVGuide.com and TV Guide Mobile have the biggest and most-engaged audiences in the valuable TV information category, making them a perfect fit for our portfolio of premium content brands,” Jim Lanzone, president of CBS Interactive, said in a statement. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the terms of the deal were not released.
While TVGuide.com draws 16.5 million hits monthly, the magazine that shares its name is down to an estimated 2 million readers. The weekly magazine is a separate entity from the cable network and TV Guide Digital.