According to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, ProSieben Sat 1 and Sky Deutschland are planning a merger due to the weakening TV business.
Sky operates the Wow streaming service, while ProSiebenSat1 has around four million customers on its Joyn streaming platform.
Silvio Berlusconi’s media company MFE holds around 26 percent of the shares in ProSieben Sat1 and has two nominated candidates for the supervisory board of the television group.
The linear television business has had better days. That’s why ProSiebenSat1 and Sky are supposed to be working in the background on a possible merger, the “Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ)” reported. The companies that were once part of Leo Kirch’s media empire split after its collapse more than 20 years ago. According to information from “SZ”, talks about a joint streaming platform between ProSieben Sat1 and Sky Germany are still at a very early stage.
Sky Deutschland belongs to the British Sky Group, which is part of the American media group Comcast. Comcast has been looking for a buyer for Sky in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy for some time, so die “SZ”. Sky Germany operates the streaming service Wow, which offers content from HBO and in-house productions and is one of the largest financiers of the German football league.
ProSiebenSat1 has around four million customers on its mainly advertising-financed streaming platform Joyn. The income from Sky on the other hand, came mainly from subscriptions, according to “SZ” with shrinking income. Together, Joyn and Wow could become a larger streaming platform to face competition from RTL plus, Disney+, Netflix and to stand up in the sports sector through Dazn.
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Berlusconi’s media company MFE will probably get two seats on the supervisory board
Media for Europe (MFE), the media company of the Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi (Forza Italia), holds around 26 percent of the shares in ProSieben Sat1 and has two nominated candidates for the supervisory board of the television group.
Meanwhile, ProSieben Sat1 is struggling with problems in its core business, linear television, because advertising revenue has declined. The new CEO Bert Habets – who comes from RTL – showed optimism for the remaining months despite a loss of 15 million euros in the first quarter of 2022 and announced a savings program, writes “SZ”. Nevertheless, he did not rule out larger acquisitions.
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