Sky Deutschland’s acquisition of Sport1 stake approved

The German competition authority, the Bundeskartellamt, has cleared Sky Deutschland’s acquisition of a minority stake in sports channel Sport1, as part of a wider deal that it announced in December.

Sky said that it would acquire 100% ownership of production company Plaza Media along with a 25.1% interest in Sport1 and Constantin Sport Marketing from Contstantin Sport Holding for €57.5 million – excluding cash and debt.

Bundeskartellamt president, Andreas Mundt, said: “Ultimately, the merger project did not give any substantial cause for concern.

“Although Sky has a paramount market position in the pay TV sector, this is not materially strengthened by the planned acquisition.”

Sport1 operates the free TV channel of the same name, as well as the Sport1.de online portal. It also offers several small sports-related pay TV channels that are distributed by Sky and other platforms.

Constantin Sport Marketing markets TV advertising time and online ad space, mainly for Sport1 but also for third parties. Plazamedia is primarily a producer of sports programmes.