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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rarebird who wrote (35817)	9/10/1998 3:03:00 PM
From: J Fieb	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Canal+ Sept. launch in Poland; wizja+. Old release, but new to me. Canal Plus chooses EUTELSAT, launches Canal Plus Polska with @Entertainment Paris, June 23, 1998 - Canal Plus has selected EUTELSAT for the first Polish digital television platform. The new package will be launched in September using capacity on EUTELSAT's HOT BIRD satellites at 13 degrees East and will be receivable throughout Poland with 60cm antennas. Canal Plus's decision to use EUTELSAT confirms the leading position played by the Organization's HOT BIRD satellites in one of Europe's largest and most competitive satellite television markets. Using EUTELSAT capacity, Canal Plus has already had considerable success in Poland with Canal Plus Polska, the country's largest pay-TV channel which was launched in 1995 and today has 250,000 subscribers. Nine additional Polish channels also broadcast via EUTELSAT of which four are analogue and five digital. According to the most recent audience research in Poland, nearly 90 per cent of satellite television households in the country watch channels broadcast from EUTELSAT. Nearly 80 per cent of direct-to-home households are equipped for HOT BIRD reception. EUTELSAT operates a fleet of 11 satellites for fixed and mobile communications in Europe. In addition to broadcasting over 300 digital and 70 analogue television channels the satellites are used for multimedia communications, business networks, satellite newsgathering, telephony and the EUTELTRACS messaging and positioning service for trucks and fishing vessels. @Entertainment, Inc. and Telewizyna Korporacja Partycypacyjna (TKP), owner of CANAL+ Polska, have announced that they will begin joint development of a digital DTH television service for Poland. The Polish direct-to-home TV service is set for a September 1998 launch under the brand name, Wizja+. Wizja+'s network lineup will include Polish and international channels, broadcast in the Polish language, and three multiplexed CANAL+ Polska channels. Through the deal, @Entertainment, and its Wizja TV programming service, will receive a 40 percent fully diluted share interest in TKP for around $112 million in cash. According to the proposed transaction, TKP will purchase all of the pay-TV assets of @Entertainment for approximately $38 million. TKP will take on all of the contracts and obligations of @Entertainment's pay-TV operations. Upon the close of this transaction, the ownership of TKP will be as follows: 40 percent by DTC Productions, a subsidiary of @Entertainment; 40 percent by CANAL+ SA, Europe's largest pay-TV company; 10 percent by Agora, owner of one of the largest diversified media groups in Poland; and 10 percent by Polcom, a Polish investment firm headed by the chairman of TKP, Lew Rywin.