German pay-TV operator Sky Deutschland "has taken over production company Plazamedia and aquired stakes in Sport1 and Constantin Sport Marketing," according to Uwe Mantel of DWDL. Sky, which is by far the biggest customer of the sports production company, now "has completed the takeover of Plazamedia from Constantin Medien." In addition to the takeover of Plazamedia, which produces the Champions League broadcasts of German public broadcaster ZDF, among others, Sky acquired a 25.1% stake in Constantin Sport Marketing and Constantin's sports department. Parts of Contantin's sports department are free-to-air TV channels Sport1, pay-TV channel Sport1+ and Sport1 US, sports website Sport1.de and audio broadcast channel Sport1.fm, which launched this year. Sky paid €57.5M ($78.4M) for the complete package. Sky Deutschland CEO Brian Sullivan said, "Plazamedia is a longtime and highly valued business partner of Sky. Today's agreement outlines the next step in the complete integration of important customer-orentied operations" (DWDL, 12/5).
