Liberty Extends Move Into German Pay TV

Liberty Media Corp., a cable TV programming company controlled by John Malone, plans to acquire a minority stake in the pay-television operations of Germany’s Kirch Group and has asked regulators to review its plans.

Liberty, which aims to become a dominant cable network operator in Germany, has presented its plan to the German antitrust agency, the Federal Cartel Office, agency spokesman Thomas Mehler said.

Under German law, the office can issue a decision or open a further inquiry, which can last up to three more months. The filing was made Nov. 16.

Liberty Media is in the process of buying six regional cable TV networks from Deutsche Telekom, Germany’s top phone company. It also has reached an agreement with Deutsche Bank to buy cable network operator TeleColumbus.

The deals, if they clear regulatory hurdles, would make Liberty the biggest player in the German cable market.

Liberty’s plans to acquire a stake in KirchPayTV probably will run into regulatory opposition, as plans to link network operators with content providers such as Kirch have been viewed skeptically by European regulators in the past.

Mehler declined to comment on the size of the stake that Liberty plans to acquire, and Liberty wasn’t available for comment.

A 22% stake in KirchPayTV is held by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The media company has an option that can force Kirch to buy back the stake as of October and has been rumored to want to sell its stake.