ProSieben sells N24 news channel

ProSiebenSat.1 has sold its news station N24 and production company Maz&More to newly-founded company N24 Media. The German broadcaster said the new company, headquartered in Berlin, would be the country’s largest independent TV information producer.

N24 Media is a consortium made up of N24 management and former Der Spiegel editor-in-chief Stefan Aust. In addition to the purchase agreement, the parties also signed a contract for the new company to deliver all news programming for Sat.1, ProSieben and Kabel Eins until the end of 2016. The newly founded company will also produce Sat.1 Frühstücksfernsehen and Sat.1-Magazin until at least mid-2014.

ProSiebenSat.1 will have costs of €41m from the sale and up to €2m of write-downs of non-current assets are expected. These effects will be recognised as non-recurring expenses in the income statement for the second quarter of 2010. On the whole, the ProSiebenSat.1 Group expects the transaction to improve recurring EBITDA by at least €25m per year, starting in 2011.