GERMAN MONOPOLY AUTHORITY BLOCKS CLT-UFA LINK WITH PREMIERE.

The audiovisual group, CLT-Ufa, announced on October 5 that the Berlin-based Bundeskartellamt had refused to allow it to raise its stake in the German pay-TV channel, Premiere, from its current 37.5% to 50%. CLT said it intends to appeal against what it described as "legally untenable" and "purely arbitrary". CLT-Ufa also criticised the German monopolies watchdog for failing to take account of the fact that it is a competitor of Premiere (part of the Kirch group), both in the digital TV sector and elsewhere, and stressed that no other investor was prepared to go into this new market...