JUNE 11, 2002

Columbia bidding for Kirch TV assets

The American film studio Columbia Tristar is in talks with German banks over a possible bid for the assets of the Kirch company.

THE American film studio Columbia Tristar is in talks with German banks over a possible bid for the assets of the Kirch company, which controls a variety of TV channels, film libraries and sports rights. Colombia Tristar is believed to be one of the companies which is owed money by Kirch for the use of its film libraries and may be trying to get control of more films so as to be able to market them elsewhere in the future.

It is not clear whether Colombia is interested in any of the sports rights, which include the commercial rights to Formula 1 but the company could bid for them and then sell them on to someone better qualified to exploit them.