News Corp increases stake in Sky Deutschland

MUMBAI: By way of a new share issue, News Corporation has increased its stake in Sky Deutschland from 39.96 to 45.4 per cent.

The company has announced that it has agreed to subscribe up to 49 million new registered shares in Sky Deutschland via a capital increase that is expected to raise between 110 million euros and 120 million euros. 
 
The capital increase is expected to happen in January 2010. The funds will be used for sales and marketing efforts to drive subscriptions upgrading Sky‘s HD capacity ncluding the launch of four new channels next year and investing in programming.

Noted outgoing CEO Mark Williams, “From all we have seen, I am confident that this is the right time to invest in the future growth of this company. I am pleased that News Corporation supports this view. 
 
“More than 350,000 new customers have decided to subscribe to the service since launch. We are excited about the new products and programming that we have coming down the line and believe that customers have much more to look forward to in 2010.”