page_title: ProSieben
section_title: 1994–1999
hierarchical_section_title: ProSieben / History / 1994–1999
caption_attribution_description: English: Thomas Kirch Deutsch: Thomas Kirch
context_page_description: ProSieben is a German free-to-air television network. It was launched on 1 January 1989. It is Germany's second-largest privately owned television company. Although ProSieben produces some of its programming itself, it also airs many American imports. On 3 May 2012, the network launched a pay-TV channel called ProSieben Fun. A third channel called ProSieben Maxx started broadcasting on 3 September 2013.
  The three different feeds of the channel are: ProSieben, ProSieben Austria, and ProSieben Schweiz. The main difference is that they have different advertisements and news for each target country.
  The channel uses an English slogan: "We love to entertain you."
  ProSieben broadcasts from the Astra 1L and 3A satellites and is uplinked by MX1.
context_section_description: In 1994, ProSieben started a teletext service. On 24 October 1994, it started using a new station logo. Turnover in 1994 was DM 1.192 billion (now about €786 million) and pre-tax profit was DM 144 million (today about €95 million). On 19 December 1995, ProSieben Television GmbH was transformed into a joint-stock company called ProSieben Television AG (after 1996 ProSieben Media AG, since 2000 ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG). Thomas Kirch remained the main shareholder and the Rewe Group was a co-shareholder with 41.6 percent. The chairman was Georg Kofler.
  In 1996, ProSieben was granted a nationwide broadcast license and launched its Internet site. That same year, ProSieben bought AT & TV Merchandising Concepts GmbH and Merchandising München KG. Sales rose to DM 1.69 billion.
  Wholly owned subsidiaries of Pro Sieben Media AG in 1998 (incomplete list):
  Asta Vista
  Starwatch Navigation
  MGM Mediagruppe
  Agentur für Urheberrechte
  Pro Sieben Business Communication
  Pro Sieben Home Entertainment
  ddp news agency
  Advertising slots for were added for Switzerland in 1997 and Austria in 1998. ProSieben Austria also had its own news broadcast (ProSieben Austria News, formerly ProSieben Austria TopNews). Together with RTL, ProSieben operated a combined slot in Switzerland, which was cancelled after seven months in the spring of 2000. In Austria, there is a program slot on ProSieben Austria, Sat.1 Österreich and kabel eins Austria, which has been continuously expanded. In cooperation with the Austrian station Puls 4, the three-hour morning show Café Puls has been broadcast on all three stations since 2004.
  On 7 July 1997, ProSieben went public, the shares were oversubscribed 50-fold. This way a nonvoting preference was used to divide up the shares. A year later, the company was added to MDAX. Berlin brought the inauguration of the DM 12 million ProSieben building in 1998. Kirch Media AG held 58.4% of ProSieben Media AG in 1998.
  A news channel, N24 was started in 1999,  it went on the air in early 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. N24 now has a bigger audience share than n-tv, but is no longer owned by the company. In 1998, ProSieben took over the news agency ddp.
  On 19 September 1999, ProSieben began broadcasting digital multichannel sound in Dolby Digital format.
caption: Thomas Kirch in 1995
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