Leo Kirch

Leo Kirch (21 October 1926 – 14 July 2011) was a German media entrepreneur who founded the Kirch Group.

Kirch was born in Volkach, Bavaria, but shortly afterward his family moved to the nearby town of Würzburg. After completing high school, he studied marketing and management as well as mathematics at the University of Munich, graduating in 1952. It was during this time that he gained an interest in electronic media.

Borrowing money from his wife's family, he purchased exclusive German rights for the Italian movie La strada in 1960. As his company rose to become one of the most important private media companies in the then West Germany, the country's second public broadcaster, ZDF, came to depend on it heavily for films and other programs, partly as a result of companies that appeared to be competing actually being owned by Kirch. This situation remained for many decades, until the launch of commercial television in 1984. Kirch was the owner of the first private channel, Sat.1 and withdrew his series from ZDF.

In 1985 he purchased a stake in the leading tabloid Bild after the death of former owner Axel Springer. During the 1990s he set up the subscription television service Premiere and became a key player in sports broadcasting rights, paying massive amounts for the rights to the German Bundesliga, eventually to the point where even players of moderate ability could earn multi-million mark salaries. This was consistent with trends happening across much of Europe at the same time. In addition, in 1996 he purchased the rights to the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups for some €1.9 billion and purchased the rights to Formula One for €1.5 billion.

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