Weather Channel bids due

Landmark Communications is seeking as much as $5 billion for the cable television network Weather Channel, with preliminary bids due next week, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

Interested parties include General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal, Time Warner Inc., CBS Corp. and Comcast Corp., these people said.

Privately held Landmark said in January that it was exploring options for its publishing and television businesses, hiring JPMorgan and Lehman Bros. to look at its alternatives.

Analysts have said the Weather Channel would be the most prized asset in a sale because cable networks are more valuable than newspapers, which have been losing advertisers and readers to the Internet and cable TV networks.

A person familiar with the situation said about 20 parties had looked at sale materials for the Weather Channel. The network’s time-sensitive material as well as programming about hot-button issues on the environment and climate change has proved to be attractive to advertisers and audiences.

Landmark Communications, based in Norfolk, Va., declined to comment, as did Time Warner, Comcast and CBS. NBC was not immediately available to comment.

Interest in the Weather Channel comes amid broader shifts in the cable TV landscape. For instance, Discovery Communications, whose networks include the Discovery Channel, Science Channel and Animal Planet, is to become a publicly traded company in the second quarter.

In addition, IAC/InterActiveCorp is spinning off its HSN shopping network as part of a larger restructuring.