Archive notice: This article was originally published on June 13, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Mobile TV provider MFD Mobiles Fernsehen Deutschland GmbH (MFD) has gained the South African media and technology group Naspers Limited as a strategic investor. The previous shareholders Grazia Equity, J2 and Ammax, as shareholders from the very beginning, remain involved in the company with reduced stakes.
With the new partnership, MFD Mobiles Fernsehen Deutschland wants to benefit from Naspers’ comprehensive expertise in media services, technology and mobile TV. The Naspers corporation, listed on the Johannesburg stock exchange, generated a profit (EBITDA) of around 530 million US dollars in the past 2006 financial year. Revenue in the same period amounted to around 2.2 billion US dollars, while current market capitalization amounts to around nine billion US dollars. The MIH Group, which belongs to Naspers, comprises numerous companies and holdings in the fields of pay TV, Internet services and mobile TV, and operates its own television channels.
MFD Mobiles Fernsehen Deutschland has been working with the Naspers subsidiary Irdeto since the launch of its “watcha” service in June 2006. Irdeto is a specialist in encryption technologies and offers comprehensive solutions for protecting media content in digital television, IPTV and mobile applications.
With the entry of the new shareholder, MFD sees itself as “excellently positioned for the further development of mobile TV”. The company is currently expanding its nationwide DMB broadcasting network further and has also applied for the advertised DVB-H licenses. “The German market is very promising,” explains Kim Reid, CEO Mobile Television Plattforms of the MIH Group at Naspers. “The collaboration with MFD gives us the opportunity to participate in the coming developments and contribute our experience in setting up and operating mobile TV platforms.” The managing directors of MFD Mobiles Fernsehen Deutschland remain unchanged, Dr. Jens Stender and Henrik Rinnert.
