The Kirch group, the German media company owned by Leo Kirch has gone to the wall. Officially, it is in adminstration and a court will decide the fate of the TV companies it owns and its other business interests.

Why is this news of interest on an F1 web site? Well, Kirch is the parent company to SLEC, which owns the commercial rights to Formula 1. SLEC (the title is based on the name of Bernie Ecclestone's wife, Slavica, will not be affected short term, as officially, the Ecclestone family still controls the business for the next three years.

Having sold the F1 rights to Kirch in the first place, it is not too much of a leap of faith to assume Mr. E might be thinking about buying it all back at a special "knock-down" price!

The collapse of the German media giant is bound to be a huge embarrassment to the German government. Amongst other deals, Kirch controlled the TV rights for this year's soccer World Cup.