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Frankfurt, October 3 – German pay-TV broadcaster Pr*miere expects to make a core loss this year and is talking to banks about a debt restructuring, cutting its share price in half on Friday.Pr*miere said its chief financial officer had stepped down and it restated its customer numbers to be in line with other pay-TV companies, resulting in a 940,000 drop in the figure.EDITOR’S CHOICESetback for BSkyB over live football rights - Sep-30Pr*miere hit by Kirch fears - Oct-10Back on the ball with sports rights deal - Oct-10Kofler quits as Pr*miere chief - Aug-13Pr*miere wins deal with Unity on TV soccer - Jul-19The company said in a statement it expected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to show a loss of 40-70 million euros ($56-$98 million) in 2008. The expected result excluded a possible one-time gain from further sales of broadcast rights for the 2010 soccer World Cup.Pr*miere, which is one-quarter owned by News Corp, is also waiting for the next auction of the German Bundesliga soccer rights that are its lifeblood. A German newspaper reported last month that the German soccer league (DFL) aims to sell media rights for Bundesliga games at the start of December.”As a result of the EBITDA outlook, Pr*miere has commenced discussions with its banks regarding a restructuring of debt facilities and is confident to reach an agreement,” it said.The company said it was satisfied with the way the talks were proceeding and did not plan a capital increase.Pr*miere shares fell 53 percent to 4.32 euros by 0900 GMT, compared with a 1 percent decline in the DJ Stoxx index of European media companies.Pr*miere said in August that it expected to see quarterly and full-year profits in 2009.Analysts said the share price slump could create an opportunity for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp to raise its stake.”Our view is that News Corp has a blocking minority and operational control and is therefore in no rush to make a full bid, if at all,” said Landsbanki Kepler analyst Conor O’Shea in note to clients.”Restoring profitability to Pr*miere will be a long process,” O’Shea added.News Corp executive Mark Williams took over as Pr*miere’s chief executive last month to get the company back on track.Williams will now take over the responsibilities of Chief Financial Officer Alexander Teschner, who has left the company with immediate effect, until a replacement could be found, Pr*miere said.Germany’s biggest commercial broadcaster, ProSiebenSat1 Media AG, said last month it will miss its 2008 targets due to a shortfall in television advertisement sales.Pr*miere also said it had adopted a classification system to report customer numbers that was in line with other pay-TV companies, which showed it had 2.41 million direct customers as of Sept. 30.About 940,000 customers that would have been included under the old classification system have been excluded, Pr*miere said.
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