Other poster: Well, what kind of value would you give the Food Network and compare to GSN. But...but....you can't compare 'em. One has food shows, and the other has game shows. And you didn't think I knew that?
Sure you can compare them. They're cable networks, after all. In the latest month Food Network averaged 948K/574K viewers compared to GSN's 315K/233K. In other words, Food Network did, oh, close to three times GSN's audience. The demos have to favor Food Network because you could hardly have less favorable demos than GSN. The foodies are also fully distributed on the nation's cable/satellite systems, unlike GSN.
So the revenue side has to weigh heavily in favor of the food folks. But there's the expense side, too. Guy Fieri and the other foodie talent doesn't come cheap. GSN, on the famous other hand, can fill lots of hours with reruns that cost pennies. So you might get a wider profit margin with our little game show network. Food Network also doesn't have the online gaming operations which have become so important for GSN.
All in all, I'd say that if GSN deserves a $1.3 billion valuation, Food Network would have to be worth $2.5 to 3 billion, maybe more. But the $1.3 billion figure for GSN looks inflated to me, to be honest.
UPDATE: Just found some numbers on Food Network's finances. The network had quarterly revenues of $218 million in 2012 2Q. If the network really is bringing in something like $800 million in annual revenue, the above valuation looks reasonable unless expenses are completely out of control. Which they don't seem to be from the general numbers for Scripps Networks, the foodies' owner. The market capitalization for all of Scripps Networks is $9 billion or so, and Food Network looks like it deserves about a third of that because it generates about a third of the entire operation's revenue.
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