Liberty Media became a rival of Kirch when it bought Deutsche Telekom’s cable network and it is thought that Kirch could veto the sale of shares from Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB to John Malone’s Liberty Media.
According to the UK’s Financial Times newspaper, German competition authorities are also looking at Liberty’s acquisition of Deutsche Telekom cable and are concerned by Liberty’s dual interests in programming and distribution.
However, BSkyB has the option to sell its stake back to Kirch if the Kirch pay-TV operation Premiere World fails to reach a set number of subscribers and this could make Kirch more amenable to the Liberty sale.
Kirch would struggle to pay BSkyB if Murdoch chose to exercise the option.
