Scripps to Buy Majority Stake in Polish Television Group TVN

Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. will buy a controlling stake in Poland’s second-biggest television network TVN SA for 584 million euros ($614 million) in one of the largest media deals in central Europe since communism’s fall.

Scripps agreed to acquire the 52.7 percent holding from N-Vision B.V., a unit of France’s Vivendi SA and ITI Group. The Knoxville, Tennessee-based buyer will assume 300 million euros of N-Vision’s debt and 540 million euros of TVN’s and start a mandatory tender offer to raise its stake, Scripps said in a statement Monday.