Leo Kirch's beleaguered pay TV platform Premiere is to launch a new "taster" package from May 1 as part of managing director Georg Kofler's plans to make savings of around Euros 500m each year from 2003 and reach a positive operating result (EBITDA) a year later.

In his business plan, which was given the greenlight by the platform's supervisory board on Tuesday (March 19), Kofler announced the launch of Premiere Start which will cost subscribers Euros 5 per month when they sign up for 12 months. "With Premiere Start we want to give Premiere a new boost in the mass market", Kofler explained. "It was never more easy and favourable to get to know Premiere".

At the same time, Premiere has a separate package Premiere Plus for Euros 10 offering the platform's 15 specialist thematic channels - from Goldstar TV through Disney Channel to Beate Uhse TV - although negotiations are now being held by Premiere with the separate channels for them to be offered individually to subscribers

In an official communique on the programme restructuring, Premiere stated that its management believed that, in the middle term, there was a potential of 5-8m households for subscription TV in the German speaking market, although Kofler's revised business plan this week is based on much more modest goals.