Premiere will suspend the marketing of Arena (Bundesliga and sports content) while a Federal Cartel Office (FCO) investigation takes place into the deal between Unity Media, Premiere and Arena announced in February.

This deal will see Premiere able to distribute via satellite all of Arena’s (a Unity Media subsidiary) current and future pay-TV sports channels and programming, including current Bundesliga programming. Premiere had lost the prime soccer rights to Arena in 2005.

Unity Media will continue to market Premiere and Arena in its cable networks of Ish and Iesy from a single source, both as part of the digital TV offering including more than 200 channels and also in combination with Internet and telephony. In Kabel Deutschland regions, Premiere will continue to market Arena via cable. Premiere satellite homes with an existing Arena Bundesliga subscription will be unaffected by the suspension, and Arena will continue to be available via satellite.