PRO SIEBEN MEDIA AG managed to increase both turnover and profit during the first quarter of this year. Chairman Urs Rohner said that the media company, which operates general entertainment channels Pro Sieben and Kabel 1 as well as recently launched news channel N24, intends to further intensify the collaboration with the Kirch Group TV channels while extending its presence in the growing multimedia market. The media company, majority owned by Kirch Group’s free-TV subsidiary Kirch Media and supermarket chain Rewe, increased its turnover in the first quarter 2000 by four per cent to €280 million while the pre-tax result climbed 13 per cent to €63 million.

Rohner stressed that publishing house Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) will soon acquire a 25.1 per cent stake in N24 for an undisclosed “two-figure million deutschmarks sum”, bringing further “editorial weight” to the news channel. A closer look at Pro Sieben’s financial figures reveals that the profit was almost completely generated by its television business while most other activities, including the teletext, Internet and e-commerce operations, created losses.