German distributor and licence trader Senator Entertainment has struck a "wide ranging deal" that will see its films licensed to the bankrupt KirchMedia group. The films will be shown on free-TV channels ProSieben, Sat 1 and Kabel 1.

Senator did not disclose the terms of the deal, nor say how many films were involved, but did reveal that the value of the licences will be explicitly linked to the films' theatrical box office record.

On its recent track record of modest hits and box office disappointments, that may not be great news for Senator, but the company said that it expected to derive Euros 25m of licensing income in the second half of the current financial year from the pact. Performance-linked terms are also increasingly a feature of the deals being struck by Kirch's pay-TV offshoot Premiere.

Senator, which saw its shares rise 44% to Euros 0.79 last week as news of the deal leaked into the market, has already signed licence deals with rival commercial broadcaster RTL and public channels ARD and ZDF.