Comcast Corp. is in talks to buy Walt Disney Co.’s 40 percent stake in E! Entertainment Television, giving it complete ownership of the cable network it manages, according to reports on Tuesday.

The talks were first reported in trade publication Broadcasting & Cable, which estimated Disney’s stake to be worth about $1 billion, given Merrill Lynch’s valuation of E! at around $2.5 billion.

Comcast and Disney have been talking for more than six months about uncoiling their E! partnership, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The talks are part of a larger discussion over carriage agreement by Comcast of Disney channels, related to how much Comcast should pay for Disney networks like ESPN and how much content Disney will make available to Comcast’s video-on-demand service.

A deal on E! could take some time to reach or might not happen at all, Reuters said.

Comcast took over the running of E! in 1997 when it bought control from Time Warner Inc. and brought in Disney as a minority partner. Disney also has the right to trigger a sale if it wants to exit, although the Burbank-based media giant has not done so, Reuters said.

E! has two cable channels: E!, which covers celebrity news and gossip, and Style Network, a fashion channel. E! is currently available to 86 million cable and satellite subscribers in the U.S.; Style reaches about 42 million homes.

Comcast also owns Outdoor Life, the Golf Channel, regional sports networks and G4, which focuses on videogames, the Journal said.