UPDATE 1-Sky Deutschland raises funds for Bundesliga rights

* Sky Deutschland places 70.8 million new shares

* Aims to raise total 300 million euros by year-end

* Funds needed for Bundesliga rights auction

* Shares indicated 0.8 percent higher

FRANKFURT, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Sky Deutschland raised 155.8 million euros ($207.3 million) in a share sale to increase its firepower in an auction for key rights to broadcast top-flight soccer league matches, its main draw for customers.

The company said late on Thursday it placed about 70.8 million new shares at 2.20 euros each, with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp taking up about half of the new shares to keep its stake in Sky Deutschland stable at 49.9 percent.

This is the first step in plans announced last week to raise 300 million euros this year. The rest will come from a rights offering, another private placement, a shareholder loan or a convertible bond offering by the end of September.

Loss-making Sky Deutschland needs to raise money to pay for rights to broadcast Bundesliga soccer matches for another four seasons from 2013/14, which are going up for auction in April.

German soccer league DFL said on Thursday that 45 companies have registered to bid in the auction, which is tipped to fetch a record 450 million euros a season.

Sky Deutschland currently holds rights to show matches on cable TV, for which it pays 250 million euros per season.

"The capital measure will help to secure the inevitable financial firepower to bid for the crucial Pay-TV-Bundesliga-Soccer rights within the upcoming auction process against other interested competitors," DZ Bank analyst Harald Heider said.

The auction might pit Sky Deutschland against Deutsche Telekom, which has said it will consider bidding for rights to show Bundesliga matches via satellite. Sky needs those rights as it reaches about half of its customers via satellite.

Sky Deutschland has been posting losses but expects to break even in 2013 after reporting a core operating loss of 155 million euros in 2011 as it wins more subscribers and does a better job of holding on to existing customers.