Leo Kirch

BERLIN (AP) - Leo Kirch, a German media mogul whose television-based empire collapsed in a spectacular bankruptcy nearly a decade ago, died Thursday. He was 84.

Kirch's family said in a brief statement that he passed away peacefully. It gave no further details.

The reclusive Bavarian built a media group that at its height included a thriving film rights trading business, stakes in publisher Axel Springer Verlag AG and in ProSiebenSat.1, Germany's second-biggest TV broadcaster, and a majority stake in Formula One motor racing.

Kirch's media empire crumbled in 2002 under some ?6.5 billion ($9.3 billion) in debt following a money-losing venture into pay television and acquisitions that didn't pay off.

Kirch launched himself on the road to success in 1956, borrowing money from his wife's family to buy the German rights to Federico Fellini's film "La Strada."

The film was a hit, and Kirch kept buying until he had the largest film libr ary outside the United States, including the Buster Keaton library, Laurel and Hardy and the Howard Hughes/RKO library with "King Kong" and "Citizen Kane."

Selling Hollywood to German state television made Kirch rich. And when then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl ushered in private television in the 1980s, he assembled television properties.

Kirch's slide into bankruptcy proceedings resonated throughout Germany a decade ago.

His group was hurt by big losses at pay-TV broadcaster Premiere, which was burning up cash fast while his successful businesses were leveraged to buy the rights to Formula One.

Pay TV has been a difficult proposition in Germany, where households typically receive dozens of free channels.

The former Premiere - renamed Sky Deutschland in 2009 and now 49.9 percent-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. - is still in the red, though it has narrowed its losses.


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