News Corp raises stake in Sky Deutschland

News Corp has confirmed that is to increase its stake in German pay-TV provider Sky Deutschland from 39.96% to 45.42% via a new Sky Deutschland share issue.

News Corp will invest €110m in Sky Deutschland, which will use the additional investment to strengthen its marketing and sales activities, including direct marketing to subscribers, and to expand its HD offer. The pay-TV provider plans to add four new HD channels to its line-up by mid-2010.

News Corp will receive 49,014,714 new Sky Deutschland shares at a price of €2.25 each.

Sky Deutschland expects EBITDA for 2010 to be in the range of a loss of €130m to €170m. The company expects the additional investments in 2010 will result in EBITDA and operating cash-flow breakeven on a monthly basis in 2011 at a subscriber level of between 2.8 million and three million.