According to reports, unnamed German media companies have joined Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset in vying for a piece of Kirch as it enters insolvency.
Yesterday, Murdoch ruled out a rescue attempt and said it would pursue Kirch for the put option it holds in Kirch's pay-TV operations, which would force the bankrupt German media firm to pay the UK broadcaster £1.04bn.
At a conference with analysts, Commerzbank AG chairman Klaus Peter Mueller said: "We are talking to media companies, both national and international, that have indicated a cleaned-up KirchMedia would be a focus of their interest."
One German media firm likely to be in the running is Axel Springer. Kirch has been in talks with Springer for weeks about delaying an option on the publisher's 11.5% stake in Kirch's terrestrial TV station ProSiebenSAT.1.
At the conference, it was also revealed that the consortium of KirchMedia's creditor banks -- Commerzbank, HVB Group, Bayerische Landesbank Girozentrale and DZ Bank -- aim to keep KirchMedia's main business running and are willing to take a majority stake.
KirchMedia, which comprises the biggest film rights library outside the US and 52.5% of ProSiebenSAT.1, needs around €1bn (£613m) of fresh funding to survive.
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