Premiere, the German pay TV operator, is planning to launch a special interactive channel that could go on the air in Germany as early as this autumn.
The new channel will offer 24/7 "play and win" programming. Betting, especially sports betting, will be a key component. Additionally, Premiere CEO and Chairman Georg Kolfer said live betting could be "a very interesting option."
The Munich-based TV company in August 2003 started a new service that entailed sports betting via SMS or telephone while watching soccer matches (Bundes Liga, the highest league), Formula One or Ice Hockey.
"We' re still at the beginning," Kofler said. "Today, interactive services such as betting via TV still are a service within a niche. To attract a broader audience for games and betting, you have to create and establish a separate interactive channel with an unique brand. This is what we are going to do. . . . In every kiosk in Germany one may play lotto, so why shouldn't we not be able to sell tickets via our digital television kiosks?"
Premiere is delivering its betting content via partnerships with Content Logic and Oddset, Germany's state monopoly. Content Logic has implemented its multi-use iTV platform "TV Community Manager 3.1" for the Premiere Fernsehen GmbH & Co. KG. Content Logic is also responsible for all e-commerce activities, such as sports betting, lotteries, CD orders and viewers chats and delivery of telephone and SMS services. The company additionally delivers creative concepts for interactive TV-entertainment and information formats with parallel chats, games, search engines, small advertisements, shops, micro-billing and membership cards. TV Community Manager 3.1 supports live TV, teletext, audiotext/ IVR, GSM/GPRS and Internet.
Premiere on March 26 extended its exclusive live broadcasting rights for the first and second division soccer matches of the professional Bundesliga through the start of the 2006 Football World Championship. The nearly four-week event will be organized in Germany.
German business analysts say the rights agreement opens a favorite combination between Premiere (also active in Austria) and the Austrian BetandWin, the international operating sports betting company, which won via a German court decision also a license for sports betting in Germany.
Premiere has nearly 3 million subscribers. Its turnover grew 16.6 percent in 2003 to 963 million euro. It's operation loss (EBITDA) dropped from 339.2 million euro in 2002 to 10.5 million euro in '03. Kofler said the company expects to show positive EBITDA for the first time in 2004.
Germany's sports betting market in 2003 was approximately 700,000 million euro.