A dispute over the carriage of Canal+ Sport channels on Cyfrowy Polsat have contributed to a decline in cable and satellite revenues on the Polish platform.
In financial statements published Thursday Polsat Plus Group announced revenues in the TV and online media segment amounted to PLN 698 million, down 1% on the previous year.
At the end of 2024, Polsat Plus Group had 4.7 million pay-TV RGUs, 100,000 fewer than in the same period of 2023.
“Our pay TV base is facing some pressure, but, we successfully mitigated this with a growing number of pay-TV services in IPTV and OTT technologies. These new technologies are helping us offset the decline in traditional pay TV services, said Maciej Stec, Vice President of Cyfrowy Polsat.
He added there had been a change in strategy for the Polsat Sport Premium channels, which now concentrate on the Europa League and the Conference League.
“We are very happy to buy these rights, because we have fantastic results of Polish teams. We are very pleased. The matches of Legia with Chelsea or Jagiellonia with Sevilla in the quarter-finals of any cup, and here of the Conference League, are fantastic news for us,” said Stec.
It comes a year after Canal+ Polska acquired the rights to the Champions League until the end of the 2026/27 season. The premier European club football competition had previously been a mainstay of the Polsat Sport offer.
At the end of June 2024, Canal+ removed the Polsat Sport channels from its offer, while Polsat Box stopped broadcasting Canal+ Sport 3 and Canal+ Sport 4 channels featuring action from Poland’s domestic football league. To date there has been no agreement on their return and the extension of the offer to include Canal+ Extra stations with the Champions League.
Polsat also has the rights to Formula 1 Grand Prix, the German Bundesliga and men’s and women’s national handball.
