German satellite DTH supplier Premiere and Unitymedia, the second largest cable operation after Kabel Deutschland, has been allowed to complete its deal with Premiere to carry Unity channels including the all important Bundesliga German soccer games, on slightly revised terms than originally agreed.
The deal was initially announced back in February when the Private Equity owned Unity (which owns Ish, Iesy and Tele Columbus cable operations) controversially landed the rights to live broadcasting of German football games. This led to a deal being struck with Premiere to sub-license the games to its satellite customers and to other rival cable operations including Kabel Deutschland customers.
Premiere will market the football package to the 9.6 million cable TV households in the Kabel Deutschland regions while Ish, Iesy and Tele Columbus will market the service directly in their regions. Premiere will carry the offering unaltered and will charge just under $20 a month to cable customers to watch the football.
This week the German Bundeskartellamt (anti-trust regulator) concluded its review of the distribution agreement and said that is was fine for Unity to take an exclusive sub-license and manage the production of the soccer games.
In return Unity’s parent will receive a sublicensing fee which includes 16,400,000 ordinary shares in Premiere as part of the payment, representing 16.7% of Premiere’s enlarged equity, which must be sold off by the end of the rights period. In parallel Unitymedia signed a six-year carriage agreement with Premiere to distribute its content on rival cable operations outside Unity’s franchise regions. Amazing what unexpectedly winning a soccer auction can do for a small cable operation.