APRIL 24, 2002

EM.TV dumps TV rights

EM.TV, the troubled German media company which still holds a small shareholding in the Formula One group has just announced that it is selling on its rights to the Mike Tyson-Lennox Lewis boxing match. The fight is to be held on June 8 in Memphis, Tennessee and is being billed as the richest fight ever.

But EM.TV has decided to cash in its chips and has sold the global TV rights to BSkyB for a rumored $15m. The cash, it seems, will be more useful.

EM.TV has sold its stake in F1 to Kirch but has yet to be paid for the deal and cannot do anything at the moment as it is bound not to sell the shares to anyone else.