It started off as a rumour but now it’s fact: one of Poland’s leading broadcasters is up for sale, with a deal likely to be concluded as soon as the second half of next month.
In what is a developing story, it has just been reported by the German newspaper Handelsblatt that RTL Group is prepared to pay up €1 billion for a 56% stake in TVN. When asked about a possible deal, the company’s CEO Gerhard Zeiler said “Poland is an interesting country for us. But to say more would be entirely premature.”
Bertelsmann-owned RTL Group already has a link with TVN in that it at one stage operated a satellite-delivered channel named RTL 7. It targeted the Polish market and was eventually acquired by TVN, which went on to rename the service TVN 7.
However, RTL Group is by no means the only party being linked with the stake in TVN, which is owned, under the ITI umbrella, by Mariusz Walter, Bruno Valsangiacomo and beneficiaries of Jan Wejchert, who died in 2009.
Central European Media Enterprises (CME), which is backed by Time Warner, was in fact one of the founder members of TVN but subsequently sold its stake. Although present in six CEE countries, it would undoubtedly welcome the opportunity of re-entering Poland, which would automatically become its largest market.
France’s Vivendi is also being strongly linked with TVN, perhaps in partnership with France Telecom. Both already have a strong presence in Poland, the former through Canal Plus Cyfrowy and latter the incumbent telco TPSA. An interesting scenario could be the merger of their respective DTH interests to create a platform capable of taking on the undisputed market leader Cyfrowy Polsat.
Modern Times Group (MTG), too, is in the picture, as are a number of other media companies and private equity groups.
Whoever eventually succeeds will acquire a truly significant media asset.