On the up: BSkyB

BRITISH SKY BROADCASTING agreed to buy about a quarter of the pay-TV unit of Germany's Kirch Group for pounds 900m to expand into Europe's largest market.

The acquisition is BSkyB's first outside the UK. The company is targeting Germany as competition increases at home from rivals such as Carlton Communications and Granada Group. KirchPayTV hopes to double users of its premiere pay- TV channel to 4.6 million by 2003. BSkyB shares rose 22 per cent on the week.

"Through targeted transfer of know-how in sales and marketing, we will now proceed with the build-up of the German digital subscription market," said KirchPayTV management board member Markus Tellenbach.