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Article: Lessons from Kirch; Pay-television.(Is pay TV doomed?)(why Europeans are reluctant to pay for television choice)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- April 13, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Its fall does not prove that pay-television in Europe is doomed
THE demise of Germany's KirchMedia had been so widely trailed that it is easy to forget how unthinkable it would once have seemed. The collapse of the company, which went into insolvency on April 8th, fells one of the godfathers of European media. Leo Kirch, who bought his first film rights, to Fellini's "La Strada", as far back as 1956, stood down this week from the debt-laden group he founded, leaving administrators to unscramble the mess. Within Germany, the fall of Kirch will be a test of its politicians' willingness to allow the market, and--even more troubling to them--foreigners, to determine ...