EW Scripps to close Shop At Home network

05/17/06 - newratings.com

NEW YORK, May 17 (newratings.com) – Broadcaster and newspaper publisher EW Scripps Co (SSP) Tuesday announced that it is closing down its loss-making Shop At Home network segment, after its attempt to revive or sell the business failed.

The Cincinnati, Ohio-based company said that it will stop broadcasting the Shop At Home TV network and close its website from June 22, taking on up to $60 million in one-time after-tax losses related to the closure in the second quarter. The closure charge would not, however, adversely affect EW Scripps' guidance for earnings from continuing operations for the second quarter of 58¢-62¢ per share, since the business, which was put on sale on January, was already being accounted as a discontinued operation, the company added. EW Scripps said that it would continue to explore programming alternatives for the five Shop At Home affiliates that were acquired in 2004, while seeking buyers for these television stations. The company said in a statement that it would provide severance packages and a range of career transition services to the Nashville, Tennessee-based Shop At Home unit's 660 full-time employees.