Vivendi’s acquisition of a majority stake in TVN is one of the most important developments in the Polish TV industry for quite some time.
News that Vivendi’s Canal+ Group had entered into exclusive negotiations with ITI and TVN Groups “to create a strategic partnership in Poland” was announced late last week. It instantly ruled Time Warner, which had hitherto been many people’s favourite to buy the stake, out of the running.
Then came speculation as to what shape any possible deal may take, with some reports suggesting that it would be undertaken in two parts, the second – the acquisition of the remaining shares in TVN – only taking place in 2016/7, when the latter will have cleared its debts, put at over PLN2 billion (€451.6 million).
This week’s announcement that Canal+ Group is to buy 51% of TVN and merge its DTH operation Cyfra+ with TVN’s platform n – and indeed TNK – seems to bear this out. Interestingly, it mentions no fee, though the majority stake in TVN is believed to be worth at least $800 million (€575.3 million).
Certainly from a pay-TV perspective, the deal will have far-reaching implications on the marketplace. The newly created operation will have over 2.5 million subscribers and provide a much stronger challenge to Cyfrowy Polsat, the market leader, than it has previously experienced.
Significantly, the incumbent telco TPSA, which is backed by France Telecom, has indicated that it would consider working with Vivendi in Poland if approached by the company. TPSA has its own DTH operation, which currently claims just over 500,000 subscribers, and this throws up the possibility of a further DTH merger.
What is clear is that the Polish market is now consolidating rapidly, with Vivendi and Cyfrowy Polsat, whose owner Zygmunt Solorz-Zak has recently acquired both Polkomtel and the mobile TV licence holder Info-TV-FM, emerging as two of the leading players.
For Vivendi, buying into TVN is also a restatement of its commitment to the Polish market. Canal+ entered Poland in the early 1990s and nearly two decades on it remains the only market in the region in which it operates a DTH platform.
