UK satellite TV operator BSkyB is expected to get the green light to buy into Germany's KirchPayTV today (March 21).

News Corp-controlled BSkyB agreed in January to pay DM2.9bn for a 24% stake in the division of giant Kirch Medien that comprises the merged DF1 and Premiere digital pay-TV operations. Since then the deal has been under investigation by the European Commission (EC), which is today expected to give its permission subject to conditions.

Although the EC is understood to have been encouraged by the AOL-Time Warner merger to deepen pan-European enterprises, its conditions may prevent the two companies from jointly buying films and TV programming. There may also be a requirement for Kirch's Premiere World to offer access to its programming on equal terms to third party distributors.