Fresh off its deal to acquire “Twilight” studio Summit Entertainment, Lionsgate Entertainment is now prepping a sale of its TV Guide Network, The Post has learned.
Lionsgate has hired a boutique investment bank to shop the cable channel and is already talking to several private-equity firms, one source said.
“The question is, will they sell the network and the Web site together or separately?” a source familiar with the company said.
Lionsgate owns the TV Guide brand name, the network and TVGuide.com along with JPMorgan’s One Equity Partners. TV Guide magazine, however, is owned by Open Gate Capital.
The channel lost 20 percent of its audience last year, according to Nielsen figures provided by TVByTheNumbers.com. It averaged 84,000 viewers in 2011, down from 105,000 a year ago.
SNL Kagan estimates the network attracted $107 million revenue in 2011, with affiliate fees from cable and satellite-TV providers accounting for about $21 million of the total.
The network, under Chairman Allen Shapiro, is increasing its originals and has plans for new reality-TV shows that focus on Hollywood themes. The channel airs shows such as “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Weeds,” and movies such as “When Harry Met Sally.”
One source said TV Guide channel has been struggling to carve out a new identity and escape the scrolling TV listings that dominated its screen because of distribution contracts that require it to keep the scroll.
The owners have been phasing out that requirement, with two-thirds of its 80 million homes now seeing a full TV screen without the channel guide. The aim is to have 80 percent of customers seeing a regular show.
Lionsgate picked up the properties from Macrovision in 2009 for $240 million, trumping another bid fronted by entrepreneur Allen Shapiro and JP Morgan’s One Equity Partners. Lionsgate later sold half the entity to Shapiro and One Equity.
Holding a single network is tough in a world where big networks are squeezing pay-TV operators for higher fees, which in turn are looking to cut the fees they pay to smaller networks with less leverage and lower ratings.
Lionsgate, which owns stakes in premium pay-TV service Epix, has said it plans to monetize noncore assets. Last February, sources told The Post that the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company was considering a spin-off of its TV and Web assets.
The company last week announced it would acquire Summit, the studio behind the “Twilight” vampire franchise, for $412 million plus debt.
A spokesman for Lionsgate declined comment.