Poland's 'N' Television Operator To Add Nick Junior Poland And Nickelodeon HD To Channel Lineup In January 2012

From C21Media:

New Polish pay-TV platform launches

France’s Canal+ has finalised its move into Polish pay-TV, cementing a plan to merge two of the latter territory’s largest paycasters to create a rival to market leader Cyfrowy Polsat.

The Vivendi-owned company and Polish partners ITI Group/TVN and UPC today announced they had agreed to merge pay-TV platforms N and Cyfra+ to create digital pay-TV operator N/C+. The new platform will have an initial 2.5 million subscribers.

TVN CEO Marcus Tellenbach and Cyfra+’s chairman and director general Beata Monka will jointly run the new venture as president and VP respectively. Canal+ takes a 51% stake, with TVN holding 32% and Liberty Global-owned UPC taking the remaining 17%.

N/C+ is valued at PLN5.94bn (US$1.7bn) and will have an estimated three million subscribers by 2015, the partners said. They added the venture would benefit from “the effect of scale, synergies and increased efficiency.”

The move places the company up against Polish pay-TV market leader Cyfrowy Polsat, which has around 3.5 million subscribers.

“The combination of our satellite platforms realises a strategic goal of consolidation of the Polish pay-TV market while laying the foundation for future growth. Its construction has huge potential for the TVN Group and helps Canal+ to open a new chapter for our shareholders,” said Tellenbach.

The agreement includes Vivendi taking a 40% stake in ITI’s holding company N-Vision, which holds about 51% of TVN, for about €230m (US$300m). In the long term, this could see Vivendi owning all of TVN as the France-based company has the option to buy the rest within three or four years of the deal’s closure.

The agreement includes clauses that protect each party in the event of the deal collapsing. It requires regulatory approval, which could come in mid-2012.

In related news, N has lined up a new kids film and TV package, the Kids XL, which will bundle Nickelodeon HD with three further children’s channels. Additionally, Nick Jr will be added to N’s existing kids TV package, of which Nickelodeon [Nickelodeon Poland/Nickelodeon Polska] is already a part.

Kids XL will launch in January free of charge to all subscribers for three months, after a survey revealed N subscribers were satisfied with the service but felt the children’s TV offering wasn’t up to scratch.

Ed Waller
19-12-2011

C21Media

Also, from DigitalTVEurope.net:

Poland’s ‘n’ launches HD kids package

Poland’s ‘n’ is launching a new kids package that includes the pay TV operator’s first HD kids channel.

The TVN-owned operator’s new package, Kids XL, will consist of Nickelodeon HD, Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. It will launch in January and will be free for all subscribers for three months.

Christian Anting, vice-president and chief operating officer of ‘n,’ said, “Creating a perfect complement of common values. Nickelodeon’s three channels deliver a high amount of educational programs for kids, integrated with child & family friendly content. These are the channels our subscribers most often cite, so our new Kids XL package is perfectly suited to meet their demands. The new Kids XL package will give our customers greater access to an even larger amount of kids focused content and engaging educational programming.”