News Corp. Ups Premiere Stake

NEW YORK, May 20: News
Corporation has further increased its stake in German pay-TV operator Premiere
to 25.01 percent.

In January, News Corp.
picked up an initial 14.58 percent interest for 287 million euros from Unity
Media. In February, the company upped its ownership to 19.9 percent, and then
in April subsequently snapped up more shares to bring its stake to 22.7
percent.

News Corp. has been
ramping up its European activities, recently appointing SKY Italia chief Tom
Mockridge as the chief executive for television in the region, overseeing the
Italian DTH platform as well as the interests in Premiere and other ventures.

—By Mansha Daswani