On 13 October 1988, ProSieben Television GmbH was founded as a successor to Eureka TV.

[2] In 1991, ProSieben created a subsidiary called Teledirekt GmbH to promote the spread of satellite technology in Germany.

In 1992, although ProSieben was still losing money, it co-founded a special-interest channel, Der Kabelkanal, with German Bundespost TELEKOM.

In 1995, ProSieben bought the channel outright and renamed it Kabel 1, and began broadcasting it on the SES Astra satellite.

On 24 September 1993, SZM Studios (broadcasting center in Munich, since June 2004: ProSiebenSat.1 Produktion GmbH) was inaugurated.

Thomas Kirch remained the main shareholder and the Rewe Group was a co-shareholder[4] with 41.6 percent.

[2] Wholly owned subsidiaries of Pro Sieben Media AG in 1998 (incomplete list): Advertising slots were added for Switzerland in 1997 and Austria in 1998.

Together with RTL, ProSieben operated a combined slot in Switzerland, which was cancelled after seven months in the spring of 2000.

ProSieben wanted to compete with n-tv, which was very popular, mainly because of the stock market boom, and enlarge its family of channels.

In March 2000, the ProSieben subsidiary SevenSenses was established, to which in June 2004 merged with the SZM Studios to create the ProSiebenSat.1 Produktion GmbH.

On 13 October 2000, 12 years after the founding of ProSieben, the first shares from ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG were traded at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

He was succeeded in May 2004 by Dejan Jocic, who was then replaced in December 2005 by Andreas Bartl - who was previously CEO of kabel eins.

[12] In 2005, Axel Springer SE wanted to take over ProSieben for about €2.2 billion, which would have created the third-largest media group in Europe.

This purchase, however, at the end of 2005 / beginning of 2006 was not authorized by the Federal Cartel Office and the Commission on Concentration in the Media.

[12] In 2007, through the initiative of KKR and Permira, ProSieben bought the SBS Broadcasting Group,[9] for €3.3 billion and financed the acquisition largely through loans.