Move signals an effort to focus on a much-needed programming overhaul at the troubled Sat1 web by strengthening content, improving networking between the German stations and installing content managers to co-ordinate between stations.

Bartl, who will report to ProSiebenSat1 CEO Guillaume de Posch, will oversee the group's four main channels, Sat1, ProSieben, Kabel Eins and N24, and will be in charge of programming and positioning the outlets.

Bartl has been credited for leading ProSieben out of its ratings malaise two years ago and will now spearhead efforts to revive Sat1, whose poor performance was partially to blame for its parent group's disappointing figures. Sat1 has sustained substantial ratings and ad losses in recent years.

Thilo Proff, Bartl's deputy at ProSieben, will take over as managing director at the channel.

The new setup, which to a large extent consolidates the group's German operations under one roof, adapts a structure used by the group's foreign channels, formerly owned by SBS Broadcasting, in countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Norway.

It also reflects a similar structure at rival broadcasting group RTL, where Anke Schaeferkordt heads flagship channel RTL Television and also is CEO of RTL Germany, directly overseeing the group's four other channels.

While ProSieben and Sat1 had operated independently, the new strategy is seen as a managerial takeover of Sat1 by ProSieben.

Supporting Bartl will be a team of content managers that includes Joachim Kosack, currently fiction manager at Sat1, who will oversee all scripted fare at the channels; Thomas Zwiessler, ProSieben's editor-in-chief, who will be in charge of infotainment and magazine shows; and Michael Schmidt, deputy manager for entertainment at ProSieben, who will co-ordinate light entertainment for all the stations.

Kosack, Zwiessler and Schmidt will, for the time being, handle their new duties in addition to their work with their own channels.

"Content and channel brands are our most valuable assets," said de Posch. "To secure sustainable growth of the channels, I have decided to reinforce content and brands by reorganizing the German family of stations along these two axes.

"This will allow us to better develop programming and to more efficiently tune the profiles of our stations on TV as well as the Internet according to their target groups. I am convinced that Andreas Bartl, as one of the most successful and most respected TV executives in Germany, will successfully lead the German channel family."

De Posch is expected to focus his attention on the continued integration of ProSiebenSat1 and the former SBS channels, which it took over last year.

ProSiebenSat.1's German channels have increased their combined ratings by 0.5% to 29.3% year to date compared to the same period last year. Sat1 and ProSieben have seen increases of 0.5% and 0.2% percentage points to 11% and 11.9%, respectively.