CentralEuropean Media Enterprises (CME), the multinational media conglomerate, hasagreed to buy leading Czech private sector television station TV Nova.

Thedeal is rich in irony as TV Nova previously broke away from CME, sparking along-running series of court and arbitration battles.

Under theterms of the new deal CME will pay Euros 485m in a mixture of cash and sharesfor a controlling 56% stake. After the deal, seller PPF, a Czech financialcompany, will own about 14% of CME.

Thestation, which has a 45% share of the Czech audience, is forecasting 2004revenue of $222m, operating profits of $94m and net profits of $64m. Itprogrammes a mix of US films and sitcoms and local variety and quiz shows.

CMEhas radio and TV interests across East and Central Europe and is seeking to buycontrolling stakes in other media operators in the region.

TVNova's co-founder Vladimir Zelezny split with CME in 1999 taking a number oftop staff with him to form a rival channel based on the same programming model.

PPF boughtin to TV Nova when the company was ordered to pay CME $29m of damages. In 2003CME won a further $354m from the Czech government when a neutral arbitratorruled that the Czech state had failed to protect CME's investment.