• Mark Williams, CEO of Premiere: “High-value factual and documentary programming is an important aspect of the premium offer from Premiere.”
• Cassian von Salomon, Managing Director of SPIEGEL TV:  “This new history channel from Premiere offers us a tremendous possibility to strengthen and develop the core competence of SPIEGEL journalism.”
• Dr. Patrick Hörl, Managing Director of AUTENTIC: “SPIEGEL Geschichte is a response to the growing popularity of contemporary history films for a young audience.”

Munich, 14 April 2009.  Exclusive to Premiere: This summer, SPIEGEL Geschichte will launch on the Premiere pay TV platform. Premiere subscribers will be able to access via cable and satellite unique factual and documentary television using both historical and contemporary reporting, with a special emphasis on Germany and German perspectives. In addition, SPIEGEL Geschichte will show complementary fiction event programming and series.

The creators behind this unique documentary based channel are SPIEGEL TV and AUTENTIC, producer and distributor of documentary based programming. As highlights, series about World War II and everyday life in Germany in the 20th century are planned. It will also include domestic and international programming, as well as new and classic history based productions.
Michael Kloft, the head of the History department from SPIEGEL TV, will oversee the channel. His historical documentaries, such as “Als der Krieg nach Deutschland kam” (“Embedded 1945 – Shooting War in Germany”), “Das Dritte Reich in Farbe” (“Third Reich in Colour”) and “Das Goebbels-Experiment” (“The Goebbels-Experiment”) count among the most successful of their genre in Germany and have been shown across the world.

Mark Williams, CEO of Premiere AG: “High-value factual and documentary programming is an important aspect of the premium offer from Premiere. With SPIEGEL Geschichte, our subscribers can look forward to well-researched and enthralling reporting, providing new perspectives on key historical events. As a German pay-TV company, we’re proud that we will have this innovative cooperation with ‘DER SPIEGEL’, one of the most important media brands in Germany, and the owner of one of the largest history related TV libraries in the country.”

Cassian von Salomon, Managing Director of Spiegel TV: “We are living in a highly complex time, in a knowledge economy in which everybody is looking for orientation. It’s a time for quality journalism and it’s the best time for demanding media  projects such as SPIEGEL Geschichte. This new history channel from Premiere offers us a tremendous possibility to strengthen and develop the core competence of SPIEGEL journalism: the preparation of historical and contemporary themes for print, online and TV.”

Dr. Patrick Hörl, Managing Director of AUTENTIC GmbH: “SPIEGEL Geschichte is a response to the growing popularity of contemporary history programming for a young audience. This channel will offer an interface between fiction and non-fiction in order to represent themes in a way that is unique to German-language television.”

AUTENTIC produces and distributes high-value documentation for television and new media. The company, located in Oberhaching, near Munich, was founded in thefall of 2008 by Patrick Hörl and Jan Mojto as a joint enterprise. Hörl has a long experience with building and operating documentary channels. Jan Mojto is one of the leading media managers in Europe and the operator of the firms, Beta Film and EOS. Beta Film is the largest TV-rights trading firm outside the U.S., and EOS has produced and co-produced, among others, the mini-series, “Krieg und Frieden” (“War and Peace”), “Die Flucht” (“March of Millions”) and “Dresden” (Dresden - The Inferno), the most successful German mini-series of all time.

Contact for press:
Torsten Fricke Vice President
Corporate Communications
Tel.: +49 89/99 58-63 50 
torsten.fricke@premiere.de

Contact for investors and analysts:
Christine Scheil
Vice President Investor Relations
Tel.: +49 89/99 58-10 10
christine.scheil@premiere.de 

This press release contains statements regarding future developments that have been based on current evaluations and have been made to best of the knowledge of the management of Premiere AG. Such statements with regard to future developments are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause the profit situation, profitability, value development or the performance of Premiere AG or the success of the media industry to diverge from those profit situations, profitability, value development or performance results that are assumed expressly or implied or described in these statements regarding the future. Considering these risks, uncertainties and well as other factors, readers of these documents should not rely in an incommensurate manner on these statements dealing with future developments. Premiere AG has no obligation to behave in keeping with such statements regarding future developments or to alter its behavior to accommodate future events and developments.