Premiere pay-TV: change of direction for Premiere

[BGonaSTICK]

Premiere CEO Georg Kofler has indicated the German pay-TV company is to make a significant change of strategy.

In an interview with Die Welt, Kofler said the company was to be restructured into three separate businesses, which would prepare the ground for future acquisitions and mergers. "We are not concerned with selling off parts of the company, but instead with ideas about acquisitions and mergers," Kofler told the German daily.

He said that the precise structure of the businesses was still being considered, but readers will recall a previous separation of BSkyB into Entertainment, Distribution and Sports. For Premiere, which once had to consider monopoly concerns in any purchase, the loss of live broadcasting rights to the Bundesliga has at least some advantages, now that is no longer the sole supplier of pay-TV services in the country.