Munich, 29 July 2010. Effective 1 August, Sky is taking over 51.1 percent of shares in Premium Media Solutions GmbH from Christian Unterseer’s CUTV GmbH. The Munich-based entertainment company will then hold a total of 75.9 percent of its advertising sales subsidiary. Premium Media Solutions will be headed by Carsten Schmidt, Chief Officer Sports, Advertising Sales & Internet at Sky Deutschland AG, as well as the media manager Dr. Andrea Malgara, who has held 24.1 percent of the Sky advertising sales subsidiary since January 2010. With the sale of his complete holding, Christian Unterseer is also resigning from his position as managing director of Premium Media Solutions; the other managing director, Angelika Gebert, is also leaving the company. The parties agreed that the sales price and other contractual details would remain confidential. All of the transaction contracts will be signed within the next days.

Carsten Schmidt: “With its media-spanning portfolio and know-how, Premium Media Solutions is already well established in the market. Through the bundling of services in one source, we can now operate even more efficiently and effectively, and better capitalize on our existing stock. Our advertising customers will profit more than previously from even more personalized solutions. In addition to this, we have been able to acquire our ideal candidate, Andrea Malgara, for this qualitative growth strategy.”

Andrea Malgara: “The involvement of Sky is a strong and important signal to the market. We will continue to pick up speed and want to exceed our ambitious goals: we are aiming for a significant growth this year and would like to double our customer base.”

In the future, Premium Media Solutions will continue concentrating on the marketing of customized communication solutions for the advertising industry and in so doing, will also focus on new technologies – such as 3D – and end devices, e.g. the iPad. In addition, the marketing of thematic channels on the Sky platform as well as SD and HD TV channels which fit with the premium portfolio of Sky and Premium Media Solutions is to be expanded. “However, we remain unchanged in our position that advertising breaks during films or live sports will not be shown on Sky in future”, says Carsten Schmidt.

Sky had bundled its advertising sales within its own company since 2003. In January 2007, the unit was established as a 100 percent subsidiary. In January 2008, Christian Unterseer purchased 75.2 percent of Premium Media Solutions. Sky remained the minority shareholder with 24.8 percent and continued to be marketed through the subsidiary on an exclusive basis. In January 2010, Andrea Malgara purchased 24.1 percent of the shares from Christian Unterseer. Before 2003, a diverse range of external partners marketed the Sky advertising spaces. Further information can be found at www. premium-solutions.de.

For queries from journalists:
Julia Buchmaier
Corporate Communications
Tel.: 089 / 9958-6347
julia.buchmaier@sky.de