Advanced Television

Regulator rules Sky Deutschland was overvalued

November 23, 2010

German financial regulators have ruled that Sky Deutschland, the German pay-TV company now controlled by News Corp, had misstated its 2007 accounts.

Germany’s Bafin regulator found Premiere – Sky Deutschland’s name before the News Corp full takeover – had inflated the number of subscribers, overstated its value and failed to inform investors of risks connected to rights to show football matches.

Although the company had itself revised subscriber-numbers downwards after News Corp took control in 2008, it called the regulator’s findings “inapplicable” and said it was considering legal action to make the regulator restate its numbers.

Bafin said Premiere overstated subscriber numbers by 623,000 in 2007 and by 611,000 in the first half of 2008, and as result the company’s valuation was overstated by €249 million and €252 million respectively.

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