[2] The group collapsed in 2002 largely due to the debts associated with the purchase of sports rights for its television channels and the launch of pay-TV services.

In 1955, Kirch, an assistant professor at the University of Munich, founded Sirius Films and in 1956, he borrowed $54,000 to acquire the German rights to Federico Fellini's La Strada, which was successful in Germany.

[4] With conductor Herbert von Karajan, Kirch founded classical music production company Cosmotel in 1964.

[8] In 1989, Kirch acquired Germany's second largest book club, Deutschen Büecherbund, from Holtzbrinck Publishing Group.

The same year, they also invested in Spanish broadcaster Telecinco and in 1995 acquired shares in Italian media company Mediaset.

[3][9][10] Kirch also held (at one time) a 49% interest in distributor Constantin Film and a 40% share in Swiss exhibitor Cinetrade.

[13] Berlusconi agreed to a joint venture with Kirch, a European television production and distribution network called Eureka.

[2] In February 2001, Kirch Beteiligung agreed to rescue German based EM.TV which had purchased Speed Investments for £1.1 billion and held a majority share of Formula One's commercial rights.

Kirch's share of SLEC was retained by BayernLB, JPMorgan Chase and Lehman Brothers (through Speed Investments).

[3] KirchMedia's main assets were: KirchPayTV was majority owned by Taurus Holding, however BSkyB held 22% along with Lehman Brothers (2.4%) and Saudi Prince Al-Waleed (3.12%).