Nokia makes the d-box for Kirch. If this deal can get through the EU, it means that all German households would buy a C-Cube based box. It's a much bigger deal than TCI settop deal, but it's still in doubt...............................................
ijumpstart.com
What a difference a couple of weeks makesEAfter being informed that there is to be no change in the form of the merger between CLT-Ufa's Premiere pay-TV channel and Leo Kirch's DF1 service, EU commissioner Karel van Miert announced that permission will not be granted for it to go-ahead.
Only two weeks ago, pundits were placing bets that the merger would go ahead as they expected the media giants to comply with Van Miert's conditions.
One of the main points raised by the EU was the ability by both parties to use their many free-to-air channels such as RTL, RTL-2 and Sat1 to create publicity for events and films being sold on limited access.
The Commission also rejected the argument that a merger was necessary because advertising revenue was falling for the major stations. "The advertising industry already cannot avoid working with one or the other company today."
Kirch already owns 50 per cent of Premiere that has been able to gain 1.6 million subscribers. By contrast, DF1 has only 150,000 subscribers, but this figure is expected to rise rapidly following the decision by Deutsche Telekom to deliver it to its 17 million cable households.
"There is room for both services," said the Commission's statement. "The Kirch Group could go ahead, either on its own or with new partners if it so wished."
Unsuprisingly, The Kirch Group and CLT-Ufa have agreed to join forces and fight the decision by EU commissioner van Miert to turn down their application.
A joint statement by both companies claimed that van Miert "asked all the wrong questions and therefore came to the wrong conclusions."
Although the final decision is to be made in May, van Miert already pointed out that the merger could only go ahead if both companies made profound changes in the structure of any company formed. In particular, van Miert pointed out that between them the two controlled most free-to-air television and most film and programme supplies. |
