COMPANY TOWN ANNEX

Viacom Selling TV Network Affiliates: The company said it is negotiating the sale of its five affiliates but would not say to whom or at what price. The entertainment newspaper Daily Variety put the asking price at nearly $400 million. The stations are in Shreveport, La.; Hartford, Conn.; Rochester and Albany, N.Y., and St. Louis. Since it won control of Paramount Communications Inc. earlier this year, Viacom Inc. has sold New York’s Madison Square Garden, the MSG sports network and the New York Knicks basketball and Rangers hockey teams to Cablevision Systems and ITT Corp. for $1.1 billion. Viacom is seeking to sell its cable systems to a Tele-Communications Inc.-backed joint venture for at least $1 billion.