Deutsche Telekom AG announced that its supervisory board has given the green light for its participation in the Multimedia Betriebs GmbH digital television venture, for which it also had prior consent from German anti-trust authorities. There would be conditions placed on the venture by state media regulators, it added, but did not elaborate. Telekom confirmed earlier reports that it would be the largest Multimedia Betriebs shareholder with a stake of 27%; other shareholders include Bertelsmann AG unit Ufa Film und Fernseh GmbH with 11%, Cie Luxembourgeoise de Telediffusion 11%, and a block of shares totalling 18.5% will be held in trust for other telecommunications network operators. Public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, commercial broadcaster RTL and French pay television operator Canal Plus will each hold 5.5%; a pool of 5% will be held for other program operators. The company will offer services and provide set-top box technology for digital pay television programming.
