Magic Media Company

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Entrance building Coloneum in Cologne-Ossendorf

The Magic Media Company (MMC) is a television and film production company based in Cologne-Ossendorf . According to its own information, it operates one of the largest and most modern studio and television broadcasting centers in Europe.

Companies

The MMC maintained until the end of 2011 with the Campus  Hürth in Hürth Kalscheuren and Coloneum in Ossendorf two production sites in Greater  Cologne. MMC thus owned a total of 32 studios ranging in size from 200 to 2,600 square meters. After the landlord terminated the site in Hürth in 2011, MMC's production operations have since concentrated on the 157,000 square meter Coloneum site. MMC operates 19 studios there. Two studios have a ceiling height of 26 meters.

In addition to the core business of renting studios, technology and personnel for TV, film and event productions and their technical implementation, MMC offers post production, channel hosting, stage construction and set design, equipment, warehouse and office rental and event service. The subsidiary MMC Movies GmbH (ko) produces cinema and television fiction films and provides services in the areas of studio rental as well as setting and decoration for cinema, TV and advertising film projects. The managing directors of MMC are Jens Wolf and Hacik Kölcü.

history

In the early 1990s, RTL was looking for suitable studio space in the Cologne catchment area for the production of evening programs. The unused warehouse of the company Kran Breuer GmbH in Hürth offered itself as a possible location . After negotiations with the owners Helmut and Bernd Breuer, the decision was made to convert the building so that three studios could be incorporated into an existing warehouse and an auxiliary building. MMC was founded as the operating company. The location was opened in 1991. The first broadcast was the music revue with Peter Kraus on March 10, 1991 . The site gradually grew to its current size of 18 studios and seven control rooms. Here the shows were The price is hot and everything is nothing or produced.

At the end of the 90s it was no longer possible to expand the existing studios. A second location was built in the Ossendorf district of Cologne. In 1999 the Coloneum was opened with a further twenty studios as well as six control rooms and a broadcast processing facility (SAW) on the site of the former Cologne-Butzweilerhof airport . In 2002, the Breuer brothers sold their Hürth property to an Oppenheim-Esch fund , which, as the owner, manages the property and the superstructures and rents it to MMC. In 2009, the lease agreement between MMC and the real estate fund was renegotiated, in which a special right of termination was agreed, which could be pronounced for the first time at the end of 2011. In return, the real estate fund undertakes to exclude competition for a limited period in the lease in the event that the Hürth site is terminated. This was valid until December 31, 2016.

In June 2011 the landlord terminated the lease for the studios and from 2012 leased the premises to MP Medienparks Nordrhein-Westfalen GmbH . On July 12, 2012, MMC obtained an injunction against the real estate fund Köln-Ossendorf-Hürth I GbR , Troisdorf, before the Cologne Regional Court , which obliged the real estate fund to take appropriate measures, in particular by affecting the tenant MP Medienpark Nordrhein- Westfalen GmbH to ensure that by December 31, 2016 on the grounds of the media center Hürth (Hans-Böckler-Str. 163, 50354 Hürth) "no studio operation for film or television productions, in particular no studio operation for the production of the television program [ ...]. ”The reason for this was that MP Medienpark Nordrhein-Westfalen GmbH, as a new tenant, wanted to market the 13 studios in Hürth as film studios. After an oral hearing, the Cologne Regional Court lifted the preliminary injunction on September 21, 2012 because it did not consider the urgency necessary for an injunction to be given.

MMC was able to increase its sales revenues from 35.562 million euros in 2009 to 40.0 million euros in 2010. The 2010 financial year ended with a small loss of EUR 171,000. In 2011, around 40 million sales were also achieved. In 2011, the operating result (EBIT) increased by more than 50%, namely from −2.2 million euros in 2010 to −1 million euros in 2011. According to its own information, MMC is in the black in 2012. The utilization of the studios in the Coloneum is on average 70%, whereby only the billable days were calculated on the basis of 365 possible days of use per year.

As the sole shareholder, Sparkasse KölnBonn was forced to sell MMC by December 2012 for reasons of state aid . On October 30, 2012 the sale of MMC to DUBAG (Deutsche Unternehmensbeteiligungen AG) was announced.

Coloneum

The Coloneum's studio building

The Coloneum in Cologne-Ossendorf is particularly associated with the German Television Prize , which took place here every year until 2014. This event was the opening event on October 2, 1999 with a glamorous gala of the recently completed Coloneum in Cologne, now the only MMC location. However, the Coloneum not only includes the well-known event hall with a representative foyer, but 19 ultra-modern TV, event and film studios with a total area of ​​21,000 square meters have been built on the 160,000 square meter area. These include the two highest film studios in Europe at 23 meters and a green box studio with 216 square meters of floor space and 125 square meters of play area. Since October 2011, TV and film productions have been concentrating on the Coloneum because MMC vacated its second location in Hürth-Kalscheuren (near Cologne) by terminating the rental agreement. To this end, the Coloneum will be further expanded because the majority of all show productions from RTL, ProSieben and Sat.1 as well as some ZDF shows will be relocated here. In addition, the Coloneum is home to the soap operas Unter Uns , Verbotene Liebe , Everything that counts , the casting show Deutschland sucht den Superstar and the dance competition Let's Dance . Extensive capacities are available in the MMC post-production for post-processing. The 300 meter long and 6,000 square meter Coloneum Mall is a location used for events and trade fairs.

Corruption allegations

In 2002, the Breuer shareholders transferred their stake in MMC to Lana Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, a company owned by the Cologne auditor Axel Schürner. The Cologne public prosecutor's office then raised allegations of corruption against those involved. In particular, the former CEO of the Stadtsparkasse Köln, Gustav Adolf Schröder, is accused of having exempted former shareholders from rental obligations towards the Oppenheim-Esch-Fonds, the owner of the studios, on his own initiative. The allegations were denied.

List of programs produced in the MMC studios

Shows

Series

TV channel

center.tv - Heimatfernsehen reported daily up-to-date from the 450 square meter Studio 42 on the Coloneum site on the events in the Cologne, Bonn and Leverkusen region.

Film productions

MMC produces, mostly through its film production subsidiary MMC Movies (formerly: MMC Independent GmbH - MMCI), television and cinema film productions or participates in them. She (co-) produced Atomic Circus, Better than School , Chérie , The Adventures of Huck Finn , The Fabulous World of Amélie , The King Dances , Henri 4 , Hilde , Whether you like it or not, Seven Dwarfs - men alone in the forest , Seven dwarfs - the forest is not enough and tell .

In addition, MMC Movies acts as a service provider for studio rental as well as the construction of scenery and decorations for film projects and, if requested, takes over the complete execution of the shooting. This is how some film projects turned out.

MMC Movies also oversees feature films that are shot outside the MMC Studios, such as Ron Howard's Film Rush and the RTL Event Movie Helden.

Web links

Commons : Magic Media Company  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ JOB CAREER: MMC Studios Group appoints new managing directors - mebucom. Retrieved October 16, 2019 .
  2. ↑ http://www.mediabiz.de/film/news/mmc-erwektiven-einstweilige-verfuichtung-gegen-mp-medienparks-nrw/322004
  3. ↑ Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger from October 6, 2011, History of MMC
  4. ^ LG Cologne, Az .: 32 O 280/12, not legally binding
  5. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from July 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. film-tv-video.de, July 26, 2012 Studio war in Cologne: MMC obtains an injunction @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.film-tv-video.de
  6. ↑ http://www.mebucom.de/news-detail/items/mmc-klagt-weiter-gegen-studionutzen-in-hurth.html MMC continues to sue against studio use in Hürth , mebucom.de, 9/12
  7. ↑ quotenmeter.de of October 16, 2011, interview with André van Eijden
  8. ↑ MMC studios are operating in the black for the first time in 12 years in promedia - Das Medienpolitische Magazin, September 2012; Pp. 44 and 46
  9. ↑ DWDL news v. October 31, 2012 . Retrieved October 31, 2012
  10. ↑ Financial investor buys MMC-Studios Kölner Stadt Anzeiger v. November 1, 2012. Retrieved November 2, 2012
  11. ↑ http://www.mmc.de/?pid=134
  12. ↑ koeln.center.tv: Directions to Ossendorf.pdf
  13. ↑ Source: www.mmc.de: 265
  14. ↑ http://www.mmc.de/?pid=121
  15. ↑ http://www.mmc.de/?pid=16
  16. ↑ www.mmc.de: 120