Bonn Pay-Tv Move To Cost Clt $116m

CLT said the write-off figure included all costs associated with the 18-month project to the end of June, as well as closure provisions.

CLT, which is merging with Ufa, the television division of Bertelsmann, the German media group, announced earlier this month that it was scrapping its plans for a digital pay-TV channel in Germany in order to concentrate on its free-to-air television operations.

The decision was influenced by higher than expected programming costs, by the collapse of MMBG, a digital pay-TV consortium of broadcasters hoping to share technology, and by the merger of Canal Plus of France with NetHold, a pan-European pay-TV company.

 

On Wednesday, Bertelsmann said its television strategy would centre on free television, although it remained committed to Premiere, the German pay-TV channel which uses existing analogue technology and has about 1.3 million subscribers.

Excluding exceptional items and losses on new projects, CLT's net profit rose 10.9 per cent to LFr2.051 billion in the first half of the year. This increase comes principally from RTL Television in Germany, which has achieved a six per cent rise in sales and an increase in profit from last year,