[Satellite TODAY Insider 01-26-11] Sky Deutschland has raised approximately 165 million euros ($225.08 million) in financing as part of an effort to kick-start 2011 as a turnaround year, the satellite broadcaster announced Jan 26.
    The bond, issued by News Adelaide Holdings, can be converted into 53 million registered shares stemming from contingent capital. With the placement of the convertible bond, together with the gross proceeds from a rights offering Sky Deutschland completed in September, the company has raised a total of 342 million euros ($466.54 million), ensuring gross proceeds of at least 340 million euros ($463.81 million) by the end of January, the company said.
    The Sky Deutschland financing comes as a positive development for its 50 percent stakeholder News Corp., following U.K. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s Jan. 20 announcement that his agency will likely refer its bid to take control of BSkyB to the U.K. Competition Commission. Late last year, U.K. communications regulator Ofcom submitted a report exploring public interest issues relating to News Corp.’s proposed BSkyB acquisition to the culture secretary.
    “We continue to believe that our proposed acquisition of the shares in BSkyB we do not own will not lead to there being insufficient plurality in news provision in the United Kingdom,” News Corp. said in a statement issued Jan. 25. “This company has put forward extensive and detailed evidence that the level of plurality in the United Kingdom has increased since 2003 – when the Communications Act was enacted – and since the ITV plurality review in 2007, when no concerns were found about the sufficiency of plurality.”
    In a research report, Credit Suisse Analyst Nick Bertolotti said that political considerations are likely to play some part in Hunt’s decision on whether or not to refer the bid to the competition commission. “We believe Hunt is likely to consider how his decision will be perceived in Parliament, the media and with voters. If this is the case, on balance, we believe that after considering the proposed undertakings in some detail, it remains most likely that Hunt will accept the recommendation by Ofcom that the deal is referred for a full CC review. The clock on that process – 24 weeks, extendable by up to 8 weeks – will start ticking when this latest phase is complete,” Bertolotti said.
    Separately, Sky Deutschland announced it has launched Common Interface Plus (CI+) modules based on the NDS’ VideoGuard Conditional Access (CA) system. CI+ aims to allow manufacturers to launch a range of devices such as integrated digital TV sets and set-top boxes that provide access to Sky’s premium TV programming. The modules support all Sky programming and will be supplied in cooperation with select device manufacturers, the company said.

Related Stories-

Report: Pay-TV Markets Rebound in 2010    Satellite Today Insider   January 17, 2011
[Satellite TODAY Insider 01-17-11] The value of the worldwide pay-TV market increased by 7.1 percent to $381.5 billion in 2010, signaling a return to positive revenue growth after the sector decreased in value in 2009, according to Idate s World TV…

Sky Deutschland Hopes to Build on 2010 Subscriber Gains    Satellite Today   January 14, 2011
[Satellite TODAY Insider 01-14-11] Sky Deutschland added more than 180,000 subscribers in 2010, picking up about 40,000 during the fourth quarter to reach a total of 2.65 million customers in Germany and Austria, the operator announced in its…

Year in Review: 3-D TV Takes Center Stage    Satellite News   January 3, 2011
[Satellite News 01-03-10] 2010 was the year when 3-D TV went from being a far out technology to being part of the mainstream with a slew of announcements throughout the year in this exciting new medium. Here, we take a look at how the drama…