[Satellite TODAY Insider 10-18-10] A wide-ranging cooperation agreement between Polish media groups TVN and Telekomunikacja Polska (TP) signed Oct. 15 will allow TVN to expand and strengthen its N DTH satellite broadcasting platform, TVN CEO Markus Tellenbach told Satellite TODAY Insider.
    TP will provide broadband and other communications services to TVN customers of the N platform, while TVN will become the main content delivery partner for TP.
    For TVN, the main driver of the deal was to acknowledge Polish consumers’ high-speed Internet demands. Tellenbach believes that pay-TV and broadband is the perfect bundle and that broadband penetration in Poland will increase very quickly. “We don’t want to be left behind as broadband penetration increases. The main rationale is broaden our distribution and to benefit from broadband growth. With that, we believe that TP is our strongest partner in this country. We have come to a very global agreement on cooperation based on reciprocity.”
    The partnership will see TVN’s role change from a pure satellite provider to a wholesaler. The deal also implies that TP’s main interests are shifting away from the DTH market, said Tellenbach “We have established contracts which allow us to offer broadband to their customers. Bottom line is they are fading out from their satellite offer. We become the supplier of the content and packager of content for their basic offer, and we are ourselves offering the premium offer,” he said.
    “We are the only platform that can offer the customers a broadband bundle. The technology has always been a driver and N is a full MPEG-4 platform,” said Tellenbach. “For us, it is key to differentiate against other platforms by having fast Internet available. Polsat may choose to go down a different road and build out its own mobile data network, which I think is a brave move. As Canal Plus is a Vivendi company and TP is a France Telecom company, Canal Plus is now short of a partner.”

Related Stories-

TVN Signs Pair of Satellite Infrastructure Deals in Seven Days    Satellite Today   October 12, 2010
[Satellite TODAY Insider 10-12-10] Thomson Video Networks (TVN) has won a pair of deals to expand its satellite infrastructure for pay-TV operators. TVN announced Oct. 11 that it had signed a deal with Spanish broadcaster Canal Satellite..

France Telecom Partners with Newtec for African Service Expansion    Satellite Today   September 1, 2010
[Satellite TODAY 09-01-10] France Telecom has partnered with Newtec to expand Orange s IP-over-satellite broadband services in Africa to sub-Saharan countries, Newtec announced Aug. 31. Orange has initiated a program of infrastructure upgrades to…

Polsat CEO: Company Transformation Nearing Completion    Satellite News   August 30, 2010
[Satellite News 08-30-10] Polish DTH operator Cyfrowy Polsat is not resting on the laurels of its recent achievements in the competitive Central European markets. Despite ending June with more than 3.2 million subscribers and adding more than…