FRANKFURT - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp will spend up to 120 million euros ($172 million) to raise its stake in Sky Deutschland for the second time in a year, sending shares in the ailing German broadcaster soaring. Its shares climbed 10.6 percent to 2.08 euros by 1555 GMT, while the German midcap index MDAX .MDAXI nudged up 0.6 percent and the DJ Stoxx European Media Index .SXMP was 1.6 percent higher.

News Corp will fully subscribe Sky Deutschland's second offering of new shares in less than a year, raising News Corp's stake in the German broadcaster to as much as 45.4 percent from around 40 percent, both companies said on Monday.

Sky Deutschland announced on Monday it was going to sell as many as 49 million shares to News Corp and said it now expects a loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of as much as 170 million euros in 2010.

The company had earlier aimed to break even on an EBITDA basis by the end of 2010 and be profitable from 2011.

Sky Deutschland this month announced its Chief Executive Mark Williams would step down at the end of March 2010, marking the loss of its third chief in four years and driving down shares to a more than six-month low.

Sky Deutschland spent millions on winning new subscribers in Europe's largest TV market since rebranding itself in July from Premiere, but the lack of success had forced it to slash its subscriber target.

(Reporting by Peter Dinkloh and Christoph Steitz)

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