Sky Deutschland has reached an out-of-court settlement on the issue of false subscriber figures with institutional clients in the US, Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland, according to the German business news magazine Kontakter.
The publication cited the US law firm DRRT from Miami as their source and meanwhile Sky has confirmed the settlement. Sky is to pay €14.5 million to the investment firms and seems to get off the hook cheaply, as the original claims amounted to €242.5 million.
According to the allegations, Sky Deutschland – at the time called Premiere, supplied the market false information about the actual number of subscribers over the period 2005 to 2008. The pay-TV broadcasters claimed three million subscribers, but in reality there were only 2.4 million.
The agreement does not cover the actions of private investors; about a dozen actions for damages are still pending.