Strong doubts have surfaced over plans by Celesat Multistream Vision (CMV) to launch a new DTH platform in Poland later this year. They are despite the Cypriot company publicising those plans to the Polish media late last week.
Satkurier has contacted Broadband TV News to inform us that CMV is neither registered in Poland nor in Cyprus. However, it is listed in Northern (Turkish) Cyprus, where offshore companies are not set up.
Furthermore, none of the executives mentioned in CMV’s announcement are known in media circles in Poland or Cyprus.
Although CMV’s plans took the Polish industry by almost complete surprise – several industry representatives have contacted Broadband TV News asking for more information – there are still understood to be two companies interested in launching a DTH platform in Poland in the near future.
Broadband TV News believes one of those companies to be Deutsche Telekom, which already operates satellite services in the CEE region in Hungary, Slovakia and (through Greece’s OTE) Romania.
In its announcement, CMV said it had already been working on content for almost a year and struck agreements with several distributors.
It also planned to launch nine channels, eight in HD, later this year that would form the basis of its offer.
Poland is currently served by five DTH platforms – Cyfrowy Polsat, Cyfra+, n, TNK and TP –which have a combined total of over 5 million subscribers.