Richard Desmond, the owner of Channel 5, is exploring a sale of the Health Lottery, his controversial rival to the National Lottery, for more than £100m.
The owner of the Express and Star newspapers is understood to have received approaches about the Health Lottery from potential buyers including Vincent Tan, the owner of Cardiff City Football Club, and PlayTech, the Israeli gambling group.
The approaches by potential buyers were first reported by Sky News and come soon after Mr Desmond appointed Barclays to also explore a sale of Channel 5.
He is reported to be seeking £700m for the broadcaster, which his Northern & Shell group acquired for £100m in 2010.
That valuation is based on direct comparisons with ITV, but Toby Syfret, a television industry analyst at Enders Analysis, said Channel 5 is a different proposition. ITV has a much greater market share and derives a much lower proportion of its revenue from the volatile advertising market, for instance.
"We think that there is a very low chance of one of the big UK media/communications companies emerging as a major candidate [to buy Channel 5] and that, if there is real interest, it is far more likely to come from overseas."
The multiple sell-off talks have nevertheless prompted City speculation that Mr Desmond could be seeking to further expand and is keen to demonstrate the value of his assets to financiers. Several alternative theories are also doing the rounds.
Dr Syfret said the talk "does not necessarily mean that Richard Desmond intends to sell Channel 5".
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