Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- News Corp. and Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. are the frontrunners in bidding for the Travel Channel with offers of about $800 million, according to four people with knowledge of the situation.

The cable channel’s owner, Atlanta-based Cox Communications Inc., may select one party for exclusive negotiations as early as today, said one of the people, who declined to be identified because discussions are private.

The offers exceed the $600 million to $700 million that Hale Holden, a credit analyst at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York, estimated Travel Channel Media was worth after Cox said in June that it had received unsolicited inquiries for the unit. Cox, the third-largest U.S. cable company, hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to evaluate its options.

“It’s clearly a global franchise,” News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey said in an Oct. 21 interview. News Corp. is “uniquely capable to really develop it.”

David Grabert, a spokesman for closely held Cox, declined to comment, as did Jack Horner, a spokesman for Rupert Murdoch’s New York-based News Corp., and Mark Kroeger, a spokesman for Cincinnati-based Scripps Networks.

The Travel Channel fits into News Corp.’s nonfiction category, which also includes the National Geographic Channel, Carey said last week. The media company, owner of Fox News on cable, the Twentieth Century Fox film studio and newspapers including the Wall Street Journal, expects to double profit from any acquisition in less than five years, he said.

Previous Deal

Cox said in June that it was exploring joint ventures and also may keep the current structure intact. Two years ago, Cox swapped its 25 percent stake in Silver Spring, Maryland-based Discovery Communications Inc. for the Travel Channel, $1.28 billion and other assets. Travel Channel Media includes the Travel Channel, currently distributed in 94 million U.S. homes, and the travelchannel.com Web site.

The asset attracted the interest of buyout firms THL Partners LP, KKR & Co., and Providence Equity Partners Inc., which are making acquisitions as financing for new deals returns. After the second round of bids, some firms were asked to improve their offers, said two people close to the situation.

The private-equity firms have been in talks with Discovery, which is available to run the channel should one of them win the auction, the people said.

Teaming up with private-equity firms would allow Discovery to retain the advertising contracts it kept when the network was sold to Cox. THL, based in Boston, is also known as Thomas H. Lee Partners. KKR is based in New York and Providence Equity is in Providence, Rhode Island.

Discovery can’t buy Travel Channel for tax reasons, Chief Financial Officer Brad Singer said Sept. 10 at an investor conference in Los Angeles.

News Corp. declined 46 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $11.53 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. Scripps Networks fell 51 cents to $38.41 on the New York Stock Exchange.

To contact the reporters on this story: Serena Saitto in New York at ssaitto@bloomberg.net; Sarah Rabil in New York at srabil@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 28, 2009 16:10 EDT