Chrysalis in `masthead TV' talks

Chrysalis Group, the television, radio and music company, is talking to Conde Nast, owner of Vogue and Vanity Fair, about turning some of the publisher's best known magazines into television programmes.

Chrysalis said yesterday it was talking to Conde Nast about "masthead programming" - naming a television programme after a magazine. At present, the Independent Television Commission allows such programming on cable and satellite television, but will consider next spring whether magazine brands could be extended on to terrestrial television.

The move comes two months after news that Emap was talking to Richard Branson's Virgin Century Television about putting magazines such as FHM and Just Seventeen on television.

Chrysalis, which reported a 65 per cent reduction in pre-tax losses to pounds 1.9m for the year to the end of August, also revealed that BSkyB had approached the company about taking a stake in its television production interests. However, the talks, which formed part of BSkyB's drive to invest in original programming, did not come to fruition.