News Corp, the media conglomerate owned by Rupert Murdoch, has been informally approached by several suitors interested to buy the corporations three television stations in Eastern Europe, including bTV in Bulgaria, Reuters reported.

Formal negotiations have not started yet, but the media group hired investment bankers Lehman Brothers to "ascertain the value and strategic options" of its operations in Bulgaria, Latvia and Serbia, the news agency said, quoting an unnamed company insider.

Neither bTV, nor Latvia's TV Riga and Serbia's Fox Televizija, were doing badly, so News Corp could decide not to sell any of the stations, the same insider was quoted as saying.

News Corp and Lehman declined to comment on the story when contacted by Reuters. The agency said it was not immediately known who the companies interested in buying News Corp's Eastern European operations were.

Set up in June 2001, bTV was Bulgaria's first privately-owned terrestrial television channel. Its parent company is Balkan News Corporation, a subsidiary of News Corp.