Media giants circle as Kirch sinks

MEDIA moguls including Rupert Murdoch and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi are waiting to pick at the corporate carcass of Germany's Kirch media empire, which is about to go bankrupt.

Talks to save the company, which has £4.2 billion debts, failed yesterday. The German government will reportedly step in to save the national football leagues, which are signed up to the group for e380million (£232.5 million).

When the privately-held Kirch Media goes into insolvency, there will be a scramble among the main players - which also include Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal of the Saudi royal family - for the juiciest parts of the portfolio.

These include the film library built up by the firm's 75-year-old founder Leo Kirch, commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat1 and 40% of stock he owns in Axel Springer Verlag, publisher of Germany's biggest-selling and most profitable newspaper. However, the shares are registered and not freely transferable and the Springer board would have a say in any transfer.

While the Kirch World Cup rights will be fought over, speculation is that pay-TV arm Premiere will go to the wall. The Kirch meltdown also puts a total of 10,000 jobs at risk.