ProSiebenSat.1 Media


ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE is a German mass media and digital company based in Unterföhring near Munich. MediaForEurope owns 75.61% of the company. It operates in three segments: Entertainment, Dating and Commerce & Ventures. The company is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

History

became the majority shareholder in ProSieben Media AG at the end of 1999. ProSieben Media AG merges with another Kirch group subsidiary, Sat.1 SatellitenFernsehen GmbH, in 2000. The newly created company controlled various TV channels such as SAT.1, ProSieben and Kabel Eins. Since 2 October 2000, the shares of ProSieben Media AG have been traded under the name ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. As part of the integration of Sat.1, ProSieben Television GmbH was established.

Collapse of the Kirch group and takeover by Haim Saban

The company nearly merged with KirchMedia GmbH in 2002, but the merger failed due to the Kirch group's insolvency. The ProSiebenSat.1 stock price crashed following the failed merger.
In 2003, the creditors' committee chose P7S1 Holding, a subsidiary of Haim Saban's Saban Capital Group, as the buyer of 71.98 percent of the voting rights, making it the new main shareholder of ProSiebenSat.1. Saban took over the company for €500 million. The remaining 11.49 percent were held by Axel Springer and 16.53 percent by the Kirch Group, each through an investment company.
After the takeover through P7S1 Holding, the company was restructured, and some TV shows were cancelled. The company's TV channels, aimed at an age group of 14 to 49 years, had a market share of more than 30 percent and earned €1.8 billion in 2002, making a profit of €21 million. In the same year, the company had over 3000 employees.
When chairman Urs Rohner left the company by 30 April 2004 "at his own request", Belgian Guillaume de Posch became the new chairman.
In 2005, Axel Springer Verlag offered to buy the company for €3 billion, but this purchase was blocked by the Federal Cartel Office and the Commission on Concentration in the Media. Springer announced it would withdraw the offer on 31 January 2006.

Takeover by Permira and KKR

's shares were bought by Permira, a private equity company, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts for about €3 billion on 14 December 2006. The shareholding was merged with Permira and KKR's other European media shareholding SBS Broadcasting Group based in Luxemburg. SBS was made up of 19 private TV channels, 20 pay TV channels and radio stations. This made the merged company the second-largest television provider in Europe.
On 16 July 2007, the corporation announced the reduction of 180 jobs until 2009. On the same day, two boulevard shows at Sat.1 were cancelled. Subsequently, further news shows were also to be cancelled or downsized.
On 10 December 2007, the Axel Springer AG announced a complete pull-out from ProSiebenSat.1 and the sale of their 12 percent of common stock and preferred stock to KKR and Permira for €509 million. This transaction was concluded on 16 January 2008. Therefore, Lavena Holding 5, which was jointly controlled by KKR and Permira, received 5 percent of the common stock as well as 25 percent of the non-preferred stock.
Upon the takeover of SBS by ProSiebenSat.1 in Summer 2007, KKR and Permira offered an option to the other owner, Telegraaf Media Groep, for 12 percent of the common stock if they renounce their right of pre-emption. In June 2008, TMG announced the acquisition of shares of the company without their right of pre-emption. This deal concluded in August of the same year.
At the end of 2008, Guillaume de Posch left the company at his own request. Between March 2009 and February 2018, Thomas Ebeling was the company's CEO.
In October 2009, the TV channel group had debts totalling more than €3.4 billion and they only paid the taxes for the loan. The group saved especially on program expenditures.
After selling the TV channels in Belgium and the Netherlands, owned by ProSiebenSat.1, for €1.225 billion to an international media consortium led by the Finnish group Sanoma on 29 July 2011, the entirety of Scandinavian channels was sold to the American Discovery Communications Inc. for €1.325 billion in December 2012. The proceeds were intended to settle final liabilities amounting to around €500 million and to finance an increase in the dividend to around €5.60 per share. Not included in the deal were the production companies.
In March 2012, Red Arrow Entertainment Group announced that they've acquired a majority stake in British unscripted production outfit CPL Productions marking Red Arrow's first move into the British unscripted market.
In mid-February 2013, the capital investors Permira and KKR started to sell all preferred shares in Lavena Holding 1, which amounted to 18 percent. The stock packet was sold at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange for close to €485 million. As a result of the sale, all preference shares, or 50 percent of the share capital, were in free float.

KKR and Permira exit

At the annual general meeting on 23 July 2013, the ProSiebenSat.1 shareholders approved the merger of the previously listed preferred shares and the common shares held by KKR and Permira. As a result, only the voting common shares were traded on Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Following the conversion, KKR and Permira held 44 percent of the common shares, thus no longer holding a majority. The capital investors also decided with the Telegraaf Media Groep to sell their interest in tranches at the stock exchange.
On 19 August 2013, the ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG finished its initial public offering, resulting in only the previously unlisted common shares being listed on the MDAX since then.
On 4 and 6 September, Lavena Holding and Telegraaf Media Groep sold 17 percent of their shares to institutional investors. Therefore, the shares of KKR and Permira decreases to 33 percent and the Telegraaf Media Groep completely sold their shares and was no longer a shareholder.
At the end of 2013, ProSiebenSat.1 announced the sale of the rest of its Eastern European holdings. The Hungarian TV channels were sold in a management buyout. In Romania, all TV and radio channels, except for Prima TV, which was to be acquired by Romanian entrepreneur Cristian Burci, were taken over by the Greek Antenna Group. The takeovers were completed in the first quarter of 2014.
On 17 January 2014, KKR and Permira sold their remaining shares. The same year, the adjusted group net income grew to €550 million and General Atlantic acquired a minority stake in the broadcaster's digital division.
In a press release on 15 October 2014, ProSiebenSat.1 announced its plan to convert to ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE in the summer of 2015. On 21 March 2016, the company moved from the MDAX to the DAX.
To further expand its business sectors, ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE conducted a capital increase in November 2016 by issuing 14.2 million new shares at €36.25 each. The resulting proceeds of €515 million increased the share capital by 6.5 percent. This led to a subsequent share price drop of nearly six percent on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
On 19 March 2018 the company was removed from the DAX stock market index, and listed in the MDAX.
On 1 June 2018, Max Conze succeeded Thomas Ebeling as CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE. Due to the departure of several senior ProSiebenSat.1 managers and negative criticism from Deputy CEO Conrad Albert about Conze's management style in an interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung, Conze had to leave the company with immediate effect on 26 March 2020. Albert, in turn, left the company on 30 April 2020. From 26 March 2020 to October 2022, Rainer Beaujean became the CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, though he left the company "in agreement with the Supervisory Board" at his own request. Since 1 November 2022, Bert Habets, the former CEO of RTL Group's Group Management Committee, has been holding the position.

Mediaset takes control

In May 2019, the Italian company Mediaset bought 9.6 percent of ProSiebenSat.1 for €330 million. In November 2019, Mediaset held 15.1 percent of the German broadcaster. The transaction took place through the subsidiary Mediaset España, which acquired a 5.5 percent stake in the capital. On 23 March 2020, Mediaset España purchased a further 4.28 percent of the share capital equal to 4.35 percent of the voting rights, bringing Mediaset's stake to 20.1 percent.
In March 2022, Mediaset announced that it held more than 25 percent of the company's shares. In December 2022, MFE informed the Austrian Federal Competition Authority of its intention to acquire "sole control of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE", requesting a review of the planned acquisition. The German Journalists Association, the trade union Ver.di, and Bavarian Premier Markus Söder warned against a takeover in December 2022.
In February 2023, Renáta Kellnerová, through PPF Group, acquired a 9.01 percent stake in ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, becoming the media company's second-largest shareholder.
By 4 September 2025, MFE had increased its ownership stake to 75,61%.

Corporate affairs

The key indicators of ProSiebenSat.1 are :
YearRevenue Net Profit Number of employees
20174,0784716,452
20184,0092486,532
20194,1354137,265
20204,0472677,128
20214,4944497,956
20224,16357,501
20233,852–1247,188

Shareholders

Shareholder structure as of 2024:

Divisions

Entertainment

Seven.One Entertainment Group

Since 1 October 2020, the Entertainment division has been operating as Seven.One Entertainment Group.
Seven.One Entertainment Group also includes Fem Media GmbH. In June 2008, ProSiebenSat.1 acquired Feeem Media GmbH, which was renamed Fem Media GmbH on 1 September 2008, and operates the women's portal fem.com. In 2010, the Fem network was rebranded as Sixx, while the fem.com website was retained. As part of this, Fem Media GmbH took over the operation of the channel's homepage, sixx.de.