Germany’s solitary pay-TV service Premiere World has been put up for auction and is believed to have attracted interest from twenty potential buyers.
Premiere has 2.4 million subscribers but has been losing money since launch and contributed in no small way to the collapse of its parent company, Kirch Gruppe.
Possible bidders are thought to include prominent US movie studios and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation although BSkyB has already lost £1 billion propping up Premiere. German media group Bertelsmann has ruled itself out of the bidding.
The media groups and investment banks who have expressed an interest have received financial information on the insolvent platform and now have two to three weeks to enter bids.
