|
overview
landmarks
|
overview
This profile considers European broadcasters SBS Broadcasting
and CME.
It covers -
SBS
is not related to the Australian public sector broadcaster
of the same name and profiled elsewhere
on this site.
overview
Luxembourg-based SBS Broadcasting, established in 1989 as
TV1, had the second-largest European broadcasting footprint
(with a target audience of 100 million people in nine
markets) as of 2005. Its television operations date from 1990;
as of 2005 the group had interests in 10 top tier TV stations
in seven European countries and in 2007 it merged with
ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG.
SBS' radio arm was established in 1994 and now encompasses
interests in 53 stations in five countries. The group also
includes Veronica magazine, the largest Netherlands
TV/Radio guide.
In 2005 SBS announced agreement for its acquisition by junkbond
vendor KKR (Kohlberg
Kravis Roberts) - responsible for Primedia
- and Permira.
The SBS Broadcasting corporate site is here.
early history
The group traces its origins to New World Pictures, established
by Roger Corman (b. 1926) in 1970 and responsible for productions
such as Little Shop of Horrors, The Bees
and Deathrace 2000. New World was acquired by lawyer
Harry Sloan, Larry Kupin and Larry Thompson in 1983, went
public and then expanded through acquisition of Highgate Pictures,
Learning Corporation of America and Marvel (later Marvel Entertainment
Group) which included Marvel Comics and the DePatie-Freleng
Enterprises animation studio. It also moved into television
production and international film distribution. New World
revenue grew from US$8 million to around US$400m but faced
financial difficulties and was acquired by raider Ronald Perelman.
Sloan then formed TV1, using proceeds from sale of his New
World stake. In 1989 TV1 bought 60% of Copenhagen pay-TV station
Kanal2, 25% of Norwegian cable and satellite channel TV Norge,
75% of Nordic Channel (Sweden), 25% of TVStockholm and TV
Malmo (Sweden). In 1991 TV1 became the Scandinavian Broadcasting
System (SBS).
CME
SBS went public in 1993, expanding into radio and into television
in central and southern Europe. A US$615m merger with Central
European Media Enterprises (CME),
controlled by Ronald Lauder was announced but did not proceed.
Lauder was an heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics fortune and
a former US ambassador.
CME had been launched in 1994 by Lauder (with 99% of the equity)
and former Czech dissident Dr Vladimir Zelezny. It initially
provided capital and programming for Czech television channel
TV Nova. The Nova licence was held by Zelezny through CET
21. Lauder took CME public late in 1994, raising US$71 million.
On the basis of Nova's market share (over 65% within a year)
and initial profitability - reported as US$1 million per week
(on Lauder's initial investment of US$140 million) - CME expanded
into television markets in Slovakia, Romania, the Ukraine
and other former Soviet-bloc states.
Those operations haemorrhaged; Lauder sought a merger with
SBS Broadcasting but fell out with Zelezny, who refused to
relinquish the licence for the most profitable part of CME
and allegedly engaged in asset stripping. The deal collapsed
in a welter of international lawsuits and appeals. CME sued
Zelezny for U$300 million and the Czech state for US$500 million
at the International Commerce Court of Arbitration in Stockholm.
Lauder also successfully claimed that Czech government intervention
had breached the bilateral US-Czech investment treaty. In
2001 the Stockholm Tribunal ruled in favor of CME, with the
Czech government being ordered to paid CME over US$350 million
(an amount equal to the annual budget of the Ministry of Health).
CME regained control of Nova and of the crucial licence.
As of 2004 CME operations (wholly controlled or joint ventures
with local partners) included TV Nova in the Czech Republic,
Nova TV in Croatia, PRO TV, Acasa and PRO CINEMA in Romania,
Markiza TV in the Slovak Republic, POP TV and Kanal A in Slovenia
and Studio 1+1 in Ukraine. Lauder and his family have 20%
of the equity and 71% of the voting power.
In August 2006 Lauder sold half his stake in CME to Apax
for US$190 million.
expansion into radio and print
In 2000 SBS expanded its alliance with Amsterdam-based cable
tv operator United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC), in which
Liberty had a dominant stake. A
US$2.8 billion takeover of SBS by UPC later that year did
not proceed. In 2001 it formed a European television joint
venture with News Corporation. (News'
Fox network was based on stations acquired from New World
Communications, a successor to Sloan's New World Pictures.)
Later in the decade it consolidated its operations, selling
minority stakes, buying new stations and moving to full ownership
of particular stations/networks. It acquired Veronica
Magazine, a Netherlands version of the US TV Guide spawned
by the former pirate broadcaster Veronica.
ProSiebenSat
In June 2007 ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG (acquired earlier that
year by KKR and Permira for €3.13 billion in a secondary
buyout from a consortium led by Haim Saban) announced that
it would buy SBS Broadcasting SA for €3.3 billion (US$4.4
billion). The expectation was that the merger would create
a pan-European broadcaster to can take on Bertelsmann's
RTL Group while uniting two groups controlled
jointly by KKR and Permira. Those investors persuaded De
Telegraaf Media Groep NV not to exercise a right of first
refusal on SBS that came with its 20% stake in the Luxembourg
broadcaster. De Telegraaf in return receives a 6% stake in
the combined company.
T, KKR and Permira will hold 45% of the enlarged ProSieben
through their Lavena 5 Holding GmbH investment vehicle, with
76% of its voting shares. Management will own about 12%.
In 2006 the two broadcasters generated joint revenue of €3.1
billion and Ebitda of €691 million.
holdings
SBS Broadcasting television interests include -
Kanal5
NET5
Prima TV
SBS6
TV2
Irisz
KANAL 5
tv danmark
TVNorge
Veronica
VT4
VIJFtv
BTI - subtitling service
Radio
interests include -
106.7 FM Rockklassiker
Studio 107,5
Iskelma Radio
Kiss FM
SBS Finland
Pop and Rock classics
Radio 2
Lampsi FM
POP FM
Nyhedsradioen 24-7
Radio City
The Voice Hiphop RnB 105,9
Radio City 107.0
Radio City 107.3
The Voice
Radio 1
The Voice (norge)
Mix Megapol
Vinyl 107
Kiss FM (romania)
Star FM
Print
interests centre on Veronica.
studies
There has been no major English-language study of SBS or Sloan.
For enfant terrible Roger Corman see his autobiography How
I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime
(New York: Doubleday 1990). Background about Ronald Lauder
appears in biographies of his mother Estee, such as Lee Israel's
Estee Lauder: Beyond the Magic (New York: Macmillan
1985). The dispute with Zeleny and the Czech government has
been discussed in a range of law journal articles.
For KKR, the backer of Primedia,
see Connie Bruck's The Predators' Ball: The Inside Story
of Drexel Burnham & the Rise of the Junk Bond Raiders
(New York: Penguin 1989) and Barbarians at the Gate: The
Fall of RJR Nabisco (New York: HarperBusiness 1991) by
Bryan Burrough & John Helyar. The New Financial Capitalists:
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and the Creation of Corporate Value
(Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 1998) by George Baker &
George Smith is an authorised and laudatory study that might
be read in conjunction with George Anders' Merchants of
Debt: KKR and the Mortgaging of American Business (New
York: Basic Books 1992).
 next
page (landmarks)
|
|
