All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 209
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News
German banks provide KirchMedia with Euros 100m
German banks Commerzbank, HypoVereinsbank, Bayerische Landesbank, and DZ Bank have reportedly agreed to provide the crisis-ridden KirchGroup's KirchMedia with Euros 100m working capital to enable the company, which filed for Chapter 11 at the beginning of last week, to continue operations as a going concern. This cash boost will also ...
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Morocco to get two new film production studios
The Moroccan film industry is set to for a major boost with the announcement of ambitious plans for two studio complexes at Ouarzazate, a town 200 kilometres south of Marrakesh, at the foot of the Atlas Mountains. Dagham Film, owned by Moroccan-born businessman Mohamed El Asli, who spent 25 years ...
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Constantin takes majority stake in Rat Pack
Germany's Constantin Film has added to its portfolio of 'satellite' production houses by taking a 51% majority stake in Christian Becker and Anita Schneider's new outfit Rat Pack Filmproduktion The new film and TV production company, in which director Sebastian Niemann and writers Juergen Egger and Alexander Ruemelin hold minority ...
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German animation studio to close after just two years
After just two years in the German market, animation production outfit Ellipse Deutschland Film und Fernsehproduktion has shut up shop following the decision by its French parent Expand to pursue a course of consolidation after group losses last year. Despite Ellipse Deutschland's success with the setting up of the international ...
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First programmes for Cologne Conference selected
The German premieres of the World War II series Band Of Brothers, produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, American Beauty author Akan Ball's black comedy Six Feet Under and Swiss documentary filmmaker Christian Frei's Oscar-nominated War Photographer are among the international productions being lined up for the 12th International ...
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Murdoch seen moving in on KirchPayTV
The prospect of the KirchGroup's pay TV unit KirchPayTV filing for insolvency is now appearing 'extremely unlikely', according to a report in the German Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag (WamS).Sources close to talks told the newspaper that Rupert Murdoch is allegedly prepared to stump up Euros 600m to increase his ...
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Germany's RTL denies plans to acquire Constantin stake
Private German broadcaster RTL has denied claims made by EM.TV Board Chairman Werner Klatten at a press conference last week that the RTL Group is interested in acquiring a stake in distributor-producer Constantin Film. The suggestion that RTL might be interested in taking an interest in Constantin is arguably not ...
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Insolvent KirchMedia begins rights renegotiations
Debt-ridden media mogul Leo Kirch finally filed insolvency proceedings for the KirchMedia division of his KirchGroup empire yesterday morning (April 8).A provisional insolvency administrator Dr. Michael Jaffe was appointed by the Munich administrative court. Shortly after, consultants Wolfgang van Betteray and Hans-Joachim Ziems were named as a "turnaround management" team ...
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Germany's RTL buys three Intermedia titles
Pursuing an 'all rights' strategy, German private broadcaster RTL Television has acquired German rights for three titles - K-PAX, K-19 and Basic - from Intermedia Film, in what is described as the beginning of a business relationship.RTL's co-operative agreement with theatrical distributor Constantin Film for Germany and Austria, will see ...
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Refinanced Senator favours one Joe over another
German producer-distributor Senator Entertainment's deal with Joe Roth's Revolution Studios is likely to be revised as part of a wide-ranging review of its financial and production strategies. Joe Drake's Senator International sales arm is likely to be expanded.The news emerged as Senator signed a three-year Euros230m syndicated loan agreement with ...
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News
Kirch Group faces insolvency proceedings
The crisis-ridden Kirch Group is considering instituting insolvency proceedings for its core business division KirchMedia following the failure of the Group's creditor banks and investors to agree to a bridging loan of Euros 150 million, according to German press reports on Monday.Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and Silvio Berlusconi's holding groups ...
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IN-Motion faces Neuer Markt termination
The German Stock Exchange has warned it plans to terminate trading on the Neuer Markt of shares in the IN-Motion Group, parent of Kirk D'Amico and Philip von Alvensleben's Myriad Pictures, within weeks.The company was informed over the weekend that the Exchange planned to terminate trading in the company's shares ...
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News
Schloendorff project faces up to rival Pope Joan
Volker Schloendorff's upcoming production of Pope Joan is heading for a clash with a rival TV project, it emerged last week.Schloendorff is adapting US novelist Donna Woolfolk Cross' book about a woman who disguised herself as a man and sat on the papal throne for two years in the 9th ...
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News
Kinowelt sells more cinemas, production arm
Debt-laden Kinowelt is close to completing its withdrawal from the exhibition sector having sold the Kinopolis multiplex chain. It now expects to dispose of its 25% minority holding in a clutch of Village Roadshow-controlled complexes by the end of this month.The group, which is in insolvency discussions, said that it ...
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News
Constantin unveils first fruit of RTL distrib deal
German distributor Constantin Film and private broadcaster RTL Television have unveiled the first three titles to be released under a deal struck last September. Constantin will handle theatrical distribution of US teen comedy Van Wilder, to be released on July 4, the Alicia Silverstone/Woody Harrelson-vehicle Scorched and Chen Kaige's erotic ...
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Advanced Medien's financial statements exposed
Auditors have exposed 'dubious' transactions within Germany's Advanced Medien's financial statements for 1999 and 2000, rendering them 'ineffective' and according to some analysts, potentially fraudulent.In an ad-hoc statement, the Munich-based concern declared that, "as part of the required corrections, the sale of film rights with a total volume of Euros ...
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Germany's Premiere unveils low-cost package
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 ...
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Mojto to unveil new German production company
Veteran KirchGroup programming executive Jan Mojto is expected to launch his own German film production company at the forthcoming MIP-TV market in Cannes in April. According to the German media journal Der Kontakter, Mojto, who had been deputy chairman of KirchMedia executive board until late last year, is to set ...
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KirchMedia, ProSiebenSat.1 merger cancelled
Germany's KirchMedia and ProSiebenSat.1 have cancelled their planned merger which was to take place this June.In an official communique stating that the merger would be "not feasible in the foreseeable future", the two indicated that they would nevertheless "continue to work together, as they always successfully have been doing, to ...
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Bertelsmann opts against RTL share offering
Germany's Bertelsmann has decided not to proceed with a voluntary public offer for minority shares in the RTL Group not already held by the media concern or its affiliates.In December 2001, Bertelsmann had purchased Pearson's 22% stake in the Group and investigated whether a voluntary public offer of Euros 44 ...