Viacom has offically taken itself out of the race to buy the Sci-Fi Channel.

The company, which owns the rights to Star Trek among many other properties, was not one of five bidders to Vivendi Universal on Monday, all of whom are going after the French company's American entertainment assets.

Viacom officials were to have said in the past that they were not interested in buying all of Vivendi's assets as a whole, but more or less were interested in simply the cable channel operations, which includes the Sci-Fi Channel.

The board of directors at Vivendi is expected to narrow the bidders to two at a meeting in Paris in July, and then complete a sale by the end of the year.

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