When Scripps Networks Interactive execs finally met with analysts Friday, CEO Ken Lowe called the acquisition of a majority stake the Travel Channel the worst-kept secret in M&A. Sorry, Ken, that distinction belongs to a deal being played out in the press with leaks that might better be termed gushers: the proposed joint venture between Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) and General Electric that would give the country’s largest cable operator control over NBC Universal (NYSE: GE). Better yet, it’s a deal that can’t really happen unless Vivendi (EPA: VIV) takes its well-lighted exit path out of its joint venture with GE. That announcement could come (if everyone who has been writing and reading about it had a vote, it would come) in tandem with Vivendi’s Q3 results Thursday; Vivendi told GE this summer it was interested in an exit but hasn’t delivered its final answer. Until Vivendi makes it official, I’m told Comcast and GE won’t make an announcement of their own. Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy recently expressed interest in an IPO for Vivendi’s 20 percent, one of the options spelled out in the Vivendi-GE agreement.