Chris Dziadul, December 12, 2024
TVN and Polsat to be offered “special protection”
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced that the leading broadcasters TVN and Polsat will next week be added to the list of strategically important institutions. As such, they will not be able to be sold without the consent of the Polish government. Warner Bros. Discovery is currently weighing up whether or not to sell some of its assets, including TVN, and Hungary’s TV2 Media Group has been quoted as a possible buyer. There is also currently a dispute between Polsat’s founder and owner Zygmunt Solorz and members of his family.
Key copyright agreement in Slovakia
The Slovak Cable Telecommunications Association (SAKT) and collective management association LITA have signed a framework agreement related to the settlement of property rights to works and their retransmission. SAKT has over 100 members including Slovak Telekom, Digi Slovakia, Orange and Antik Telecom, while LITA represents rights to works of more than 2,500 Slovak authors. LITA has also concluded a similar agreement with the Association of Cable Telecommunications Operators (APKT).
Warner Bros. Discovery partners with VIDAA
The streaming services Player and Max operated by Poland’s TVN Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) can now be viewed on the VIDAA smart TV platform. Max is WBD’s global streaming platform, while Player is one of the leading on demand platforms on the local market, with an offer than includes over 50 live and 20 FAST channels, TVP services and TV Puls. VIDAA was launched in 2014 and currently has over 400 industry partners and more than 30 million connected devices worldwide.
New content lacking in Hungary
Hungarian language channels now allocate less than 10% of their airtime to new content. According to the regulator NMHH, it examined the programme offering of the 26 channels of the country’s two leading broadcasters TV2 and RTL, both in a week in 2021 and in one this year. It found that the 10% figure applied to the broadcaster’s main channels, with their thematic channels offering only half as many new shows. Some viewers of these thematic channels could even see the previous day’s programming for 6-7 hours. NMHH also notes that in 2021 two-thirds of broadcasting time was made up of works made before 2017, and only 15% of productions made in the year under review. This year, the programme offer was even older, with nearly 70% being more than five years old and only 9% being produced in the year of the survey.
MTel upgrades OTT platform
Montenegro’s MTel has unveiled the latest version of its OTT platform Move TV. Besides over 250 live TV channels, it offers viewers seven-day catch up and access to content anytime and anywhere. According to MTel’s CEO Zoran Milovanović, the company started developing a “very serious” cable infrastructure in 2015 and became the market leader four years later. This was helped by the first version of the Move application, which was activated in 2018. Today, it boasts over 41% of the market share in TV users, which is more than 110,000 connected households. Its cable infrastructure is such that over 90% of households can connect and use its services. Mtel Montenegro is a subsidiary of Telekom Srbija.
More funding for Digi Romania
Digi Romania has secured €61.9 million from ING Bank to finance the development of the telecommunications networks of its subsidiaries in Romania, Spain, Portugal and Belgium. According to a statement published by the Bucharest Stock Exchange, it has also entered into another financing agreement with ING Bank increasing a total commitment of €150 million to €220 million, with a maturity of five years after the first utilisation.
Netflix recruits TVN WBD exec
Netflix has reportedly hired Marta Grela-Gorostiza, the head of the fiction department at Poland’s TVN Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). In her new role, which she will take up in a few months, she will be responsible for developing new projects. Katarzyna Śliwińska-Kłosowicz, another long-time employee at the broadcaster, is also reportedly joining Netflix. Meanwhile, Grela-Gorostiza’s position at TVN Warner Bros. Discovery will be taken by Bogumił Lipski.
Digi advances in Belgium
Romanian-owned Digi Communications has officially launched commercial services in Belgium. Although they are initially limited to fixed broadband at up to 10 Gbps and mobile telephony, they will in the future also include a TV offer. Digi launched commercial services in Portugal earlier this year and already has a presence in Spain and Italy. It is also the leading provider of pay-TV services in its home market Romania.
New board for EBU
European Broadcasting Union (EBU) members have elected a new Executive Board that will serve for a two-year period from January 2025 to December 2026. It includes three from Central and Eastern Europe, namely Mykola Chernotytski (head of the managing board, Suspilne Ukraine (Ukraine), Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė, DG, LRT (Lithuania) and Milen Mitev, DG, BNR (Bulgaria).
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