Borrowing money from his wife's family, he purchased exclusive German rights for the Italian movie "La strada" in 1960. As his company rose to become one of the most important private media companies in the then West Germany, the country's second public broadcaster, ZDF, came to depend on it heavily for films and other programs, partly as a result of companies that appeared to be competing actually being owned by Kirch. This situation remained for many decades, until the launch of commercial television in 1984. Kirch was the owner of the first private channel, Sat.1 and withdrew his series from ZDF.