AMC network to buy Chellomedia

AMC Networks said Monday it would buy content distributor Chellomedia for $1.04 billion from British telecommunications giant Liberty Global. The purchase will give AMC, the producer of "The Walking Dead," "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad," immediate access to channels in 138 countries, The New York Times reported. "As AMC Networks has expanded internationally, we have had a great desire to do something we consider fundamentally strategic, which is to take our content and put it on channels we own," said AMC President and Chief Executive Officer Joshua Sapan in a statement. "This acquisition allows us to secure a large, global platform on which to distribute our increasingly successful original programming through a collection of strong, well-established and well-managed assets worldwide," he said. The deal includes AMC buying Chello Central Europe, Chello Latin America, Chello Multicanal, Chello Zone, as well as Atmedia, the company's ad sales division, the Times said. Two weeks ago, Liberty Global fortunes looked different, as it attempted to takeover Dutch cable company Ziggo. But that offer was rejected as "inadequate," the Times reported. At that point, Liberty Global was expected to create one firm out of Ziggo, Dutch cable company UPC Netherlands and Telnet of Belgium, which it bought outright in 2012.