Hollywood entrpreneur buys film library
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) – U.S. entertainment entrepreneur Haim Saban has agreed to buy the film library and rights business of Germany’s collapsed Kirch media empire, Saban’s company said Thursday. Saban, founder of the Fox Family Worldwide network, made a deal last week to buy the prime Kirch asset, its controlling stake in ProSiebenSat.1, the country’s No. 2 television broadcaster, for an undisclosed price.
At the time, he and Kirch officials said an additional deal on the films was only days away. That agreement was signed Thursday by Saban Group official Adam Chesnoff and KirchMedia managing director Hans-Joachim Ziems, Saban Group and KirchMedia said in a joint statement.
Saban bought the prime Kirch asset, its controlling stake in the country’s No. 2 television broadcaster, last week for an undisclosed price. At the time, he and KirchMedia, the Kirch division that holds the library, said an additional agreement on the films was only days away.
That deal was signed Thursday by Saban Group official Adam Chesnoff and KirchMedia managing director Hans-Joachim Ziems, Saban Group said in a statement.
“We are delighted to be acquiring one of the most extensive and important programming libraries in the world,” Haim Saban said. “With this contract now in place, both the content and distribution assets of Germany’s premier media company will now be positioned for future success.”
The library contains some 18,000 films and series, including Hollywood classics and more recent films, TV series and movies, and documentaries. The company claims it is the biggest such collection outside Hollywood, and includes the Buster Keaton library, Laurel and Hardy and the Howard Hughes/RKO library with “King Kong” and “Citizen Kane.”
Bavarian entrepreneur Leo Kirch built up the library and a business handling the German-language rights for Hollywood films beginning in the 1950s, then branched out into television, sports rights, and pay TV.
His Kirch Group collapsed last year under mounting debts and losses from the unsuccessful Premiere pay-TV service.
KirchMedia sought bankruptcy court protection from creditors in April.
The film library deal must still pass regulatory and antitrust review.