BBC Studios has entered into a partnership with Canal + to launch the multi-genre VOD service BBC Player in Poland.
BBC Player will be available to subscribers of the Canal + online streaming service from June 1 and subscribers to the Canal+ satellite offer who use set-top boxes connected to the internet will also have access to BBC Player from launch.
BBC Player will offer around 1,000 hours of content in the first year and be the local on-demand destination for British drama, documentaries, pre-school, and inspiring lifestyle programming. Subscribers will be able to stream series from the BBC’s linear channel portfolio BBC BRIT, BBC Earth, BBC Lifestyle, BBC First and CBeebies, in addition to brand new programming.
Access to BBC Player will be granted to all new and current subscribers of the Canal+ online streaming service who subscribe to Canal+ channels. Subscribers of the Canal + satellite offer, who have set-top boxes connected to the internet, will be able to access the BBC Player service at no extra charge as part of decoded access from June 1 to August 31. Then the offer will be available in selected Canal + packages.
Commenting on the agreement, Zbigniew Pruski, BBC Studios’ commercial director for CEE, said: “BBC Player is a curated on-demand service that complements our long-standing BBC channels that Polish audiences love. BBC Player takes our powerful content and combines it with expert human scheduling and a product built on the BBC Group’s 15 years of on-demand experience. It is a pleasure to be launching this service with Canal+ and offer their subscribers a deeper BBC content offer to address the growing need for top quality and trustworthy content to be available to audiences wherever they are and at a time convenient to them”.
Monika Klosinska, programme purchasing director at Canal + Poland, added: “The inclusion of the VOD BBC Player library in the Canal+ offer is another step in building a wide range of high-quality productions from many different genres available in one place. We are also happy that we will be the first to offer access to the website on the Polish market”.
The agreement to launch BBC Player was concluded as part of the renewal of the long-term agreement for the distribution of BBC Studios linear channels at Canal+ Poland.
