Premiere to rename as Sky Deutschland

[<<ELVIS>>]

Premiere to rename as Sky Deutschland

Jörn Krieger

07-05-2009

International media company News Corp will change the name of German pay-TV operator Premiere to Sky Deutschland, according to information obtained by news agency dpa.

“That’s definitely settled. The brand Premiere is dead,” an industry insider told dpa. It is believed the name change will be formally approved during the annual general meeting at the end of June in Munich. A spokesman declined to comment when asked to confirm this.

Premiere CEO Mark Williams confirmed in February that there were considerations regarding a name change, but did not give details. Within the industry it has long been expected that News Corp, as the broadcaster’s largest single shareholder, would introduce its brand Sky to Germany.

Using Italy as a model, where News Corp chose the name Sky Italia for its pay-TV offer, Sky Deutschland has long been seen as one of the most probable variations – despite the downside that the name doesn’t imply that the bouquet is also marketed in Austria. One solution would be to use the brand name Sky Österreich in the neighbouring state.

[sofien72tu]

Premiere to take Sky brand

By Julian Clover | May 7, 2009 | 22:08 UK

German pay-TV platform Premiere could be heading for a summer rebrand as Sky Deutschland.

The News Corp-owned operation would adopt the brand used by sister companies in the UK and Italy. Traders on the Frankfurt market have even gone so far to suggest that a full-blown merger between Premiere and BSkyB may be in the offing. Rumours of a tie-up pushed up the share price of both Premiere and its UK counterpart in late Thursday trading.

The Premiere brand goes back almost 20 years, launched in 1991 by KirchGroup, UFA and Canal+, before merging with Kirch’s DF1 in 1997. Bankruptcy of KirchGroup followed, before Premiere went public in March 2005. News Corp acquired its holding in January 2008, building it from the 14.58% purchased from Unity Media, to over 30% today.

Already former Sky Italia CFO Mark Williams has put the News Corp stamp on the company, bringing the Premiere Star mini-pay package back into the fold, set-top technology has been shifted towards n.ds, and additional HD capacity from satellite operator SES secured.

On the downside Premiere recorded its largest ever loss of €114.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2008, and reappraised its subscriber numbers in October 2008, taking almost 1 million subscribers from its 2.4 million installed base.