Discovery, NBC near Saturday deal

NBC and Discovery Communications Inc. are expected to seal a deal Wednesday
for Saturday mornings.

Sources said the two companies are finalizing an agreement in which Discovery
will lease three hours of Saturday-morning time from NBC to produce
Discovery-branded kids' programming starting next fall.

Sources said Discovery will pay NBC close to $6 million per year over three
years and also handle ad sales for the kids' block. NBC and Discovery executives
had no comment.

The programming is said to be a mixture of Federal Communications
Commission-friendly science and nonscience series for kids.