US producer Haim Saban is set to join the growing list of bidders for the insolvent KirchMedia, albeit in collaboration with further strategic partners, according to the latest issue of the German news weekly Focus.

The magazine reported that Saban Entertainment, a regular business partner of Kirch in the past, had fresh cash in the kitty totalling around $1.45bn after recently selling its stake in the Fox Family TV channel.

In addition, Focus noted that Kirch arch-rival Herbert Kloiber of the Tele-Muenchen Group has allegedly indicated that he may support the consortium created by the Springer and Bauer publishing empires to acquire at least 51% of KirchMedia.

Meanwhile, the KirchGroup's beleaguered pay TV platform Premiere has been granted a credit line of Euros 100m by the Bayerische Landesbank and HypoVereinsbank to enable it to continue operations and search for investors over the coming months.