In 1955, Kirch, an assistant professor at
LMU Munich, founded Sirius Films and in 1956, he borrowed $54,000 to acquire the German rights to
Federico Fellini's
La Strada, which was successful in Germany. He also bought the rights to other Italian films, including
Franco Rossi's
Amici per la pelle, which became the first feature film to be broadcast on German TV without a prior theatrical release in 1958 after failing to find a distributor. In 1958, he acquired seven
Luchino Visconti films. In 1959, he formed BetaFilm and in 1961
Reiner E. Moritz joined and became chief executive of BetaFilm. The Kirch Group moved into the American market in 1959, acquiring the television rights to 100 films from
United Artists and
Warner Bros. Kirch co-founded
Teleclub in Switzerland, the first
pay TV channel in Europe. Following the launch of Germany's first commercial broadcaster
Sat.1 in 1984, Kirch subsidized their entertainment programming for two years. In 1988, Kirch took over PKS (Programmgesellschaft für Kabel- und Satellitenrundfunk) which gave the group a 43% stake on Sat.1. In 1997, the stake was increased to 59%. In 1989, Kirch acquired Germany's second largest book club, Deutschen Büecherbund, from
Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. Kirch also held (at one time) a 49% interest in distributor
Constantin Film and a 40% share in Swiss exhibitor
Cinetrade. After many rumors about outside investors including
Silvio Berlusconi and
Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud being considered, the Kirch Group was restructured into three umbrella companies from 1999 onwards, which were linked to each other via KirchHolding GmbH & Co. KG (later TaurusHolding GmbH & Co. KG). Al Waleed bought 3.19 percent of KirchMedia in 1999, and 3.3 percent of KirchPayTV for $150 million. Berlusconi agreed to a joint venture with Kirch, a European television production and distribution network called Eureka. In 2000, ProSieben Media AG, in which Kirch had a 58.6% ownership, merged with Sat.1 to become Germany's biggest broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 Media, with Kirch owning a controlling 52.5% stake in the new company. In return, Kirch received a 49% stake in the company and control of Speed Investments.
Alan Henry of
The Guardian reported that the two companies also agreed to exercise EM.TV's option to purchase another 25% of SLEC Holdings, the holding company of the Formula One companies, for approximately £600 million in late-March 2001. To raise Speed Investments' share of SLEC to 75%, Kirch borrowed €1.6 billion, €1 billion from
Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB) and the rest from
Lehman Brothers and
JPMorgan Chase. Kirch's involvement raised concerns among the major automobile manufacturers who participate in Formula One. KirchMedia's main assets were:
Television • ProSiebenSat.1 Media (52.5%) • DSF (100%) •
Junior TV (50%) • Telecinco (25%)
Production •
ndF (90%) •
Roxy Film (100%) • Filmproduktion Janus (100%) • TaurusMediaTechnik (100%) • JohannisthalSynchron (100%)
Rights trading •
Beta Film (100%) • TaurusLizenz (100%), owner of fiction and media medium rights.
KirchBeteiligung KirchBeteiligung's main assets were: • Speed Investments (78%) •
Unitel (100%) • PrintBeteiligungs GmbH (100 %) •
Axel Springer (40%) •
Constantin Film (21%) •
Cinetrade (40%) KirchBeteiligung filed for bankruptcy on 12 June 2002, along with the Taurus Holding parent company of the Kirch Group. ==Kirch archives==