|
KirchMedia,
the core rights business of indebted media media mogul Leo
Kirch, filed for insolvency on Monday.
After weeks of desperate efforts to stay afloat but weighed
in under a mountain of debt, Kirch finally threw in the
towel today, paving the way for a takeover by German banks
and publishers.
This move also serves a nationalist interest in that it
keeps aggressive foreign rivals, specifically Rupert Murdoch's
News Corp, Mediaset, controlled by Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi, and the Saudi prince Al-Waleed from grabbing
control and thereby getting a handlehold on Europe's largest
media market.
Kirch had amassed debts of $5.71 billion through costly
film rights deals and a misjudged foray into pay-TV. Insolvency,
similar to Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United
States, places the company in the hands of an administrator.
Meanwhile, closer home, what is of principal interest to
media watchers is what happens to the soccer World Cup telecast
since KirchMedia holds the worldwide broadcast rights to
both the 2002 and 2006 World Cups.
NO THREAT TO WORLD CUP BROADCAST
According to the information available, Kirch has not let
go of the World Cup. He has transferred the rights - valued
at 1.9 billion euros - into a holding company based in Switzerland,
KirchSport.
While KirchSport is still a fully-owned subsidiary, its
location in Switzerland protects it from the administration
process, reports say.
SET FRONTRUNNER IN SOCCER WORLD CUP BID AS WELL?
This news should come as a relief to Indian broadcast companies
like Sony Entertainment Television, the just launched Ten
Sports and ESPN Star Sports, all of who are in the running
for scoring as far as the telecast rights of the World cup
are concerned.
But as things stand the bidding war seems to be turning
into a two-horse between Ten Sports and Sony, with SET being
seen as the frontrunner but not by much.
Whoever does get the rights there is definitely a much higher
value proposition this time round than the 1998 World Cup
in France which garnered pathetic viewership. The main reason
for this being that as the matches are being played in Japan
and Korea this time round, match timings would make automatically
get in much higher viewing than in 1998. No matches at unearthly
hours of the morning as was the norm in France will certainly
work towards garnering much higher viewership.
As far as the bidding goes, the figures being quoted are
in the region of $40 million.
Click here for more headlines
|
