[ASnep]

There are roumours Comcast only bought Sky Italy and Germany because they had to to get Sky UK.

In Germany especially Pay TV had always had it harder than in the UK. While in the early 90s in the UK you had to get Sky (or cable) to get really anything more than the 4 terrestrial channels, in Germany you already could get quite few channels FTA on satellite or via cable (wich often is included in the rent). So the only real pull Premiere/Sky had was sport, specifically football (Bundesliga, Champions League etc.).