FEBRUARY 7, 2002

Kirch-Murdoch: things get worse

KIRCH's managing-director Dieter Hahn had resigned from the board of British Sky Broadcasting. The move is being taken as a sign of the deteriorating relationship between the two companies as BSkyB lines up for a takeover of Kirch.

The German media company, which owns the commercial rights to F1, has to pay BSkyB around $1.6bn in October if BSkyB boss Rupert Murdoch chooses to exercise an option he has. That could cause the collapse of Kirch.