Fox Cable Networks is in advanced discussions to sell action sports channel Fuel TV to Viacom.Sources say Viacom will pay a sum in the low to mid-nine figures to secure the channel.Fox launched Fuel
TV in July 2003. The channel now has close to 30 million subscribers through a mix of digital- and sports-tier carriage.
Fox's decision to sell Fuel TV fits with its new strategy to
nix niche cable channels that would find it hard to exist on their own. At the end of March, Fox will replace another niche channel, Fox Reality, with Nat Geo Wild, a spinoff of Fox's bigger National
Geographic Channel. Fox prefers getting the highest license fees out of its strongest channels, like FX or its RSNs, than use them to drive distribution of smaller channels, such as Fuel.
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