Premiere has struck an agreement with all nine of the shareholders in Premiere Star to acquire their shares in the mini-pay bouquet.
The minority shareholders including Turner Broadcasting Systems, tmc (Beate Uhse TV), Wellington Partners, AtlasVentures, East, HypoVereinsbank and EM.Sport Media represented 40.2% of the shareholding. Premiere will pay a deferred consideration over the next four years with the majority payable in 2012 and 2013.
“The Premiere Star channels are valuable contributors to our overall programming strategy and content line-up and accordingly are part of Premiere’s core business,” said Premiere CEO Mark Williams.
The 200,000 subscriber bouquet carries channels including Turner Classic Movies, Sat.1 Comedy, Kabel 1 Classic, AXN, Kinowelt TV, RTL Living, Animax, Playhouse Disney, Toon Disney, Boomerang, Cartoon Network, MTV Music, ESPN Europe and TNT Serie.