9/11 documentary screened in Warsaw

The U.S Embassy in Warsaw last week presented a special screening of "In Memoriam: New York City, 9/11/01," a documentary about last year's terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the subsequent rescue actions as seen through the eyes of the city's former mayor Rudolph Giuliani. HBO, the documentary's producer, had access to City Hall and the mayor's staff as well as visual material from numerous TV stations, press agencies and photographers that were on the scene during the tragedy. In a short speech before the screening, Christopher Hill, the U.S. Ambassador to Poland, said that Poles understand the tragedy that Americans experienced on Sept. 11 especially well due to their own tragic history. Hill thanked New York firemen and policemen who were invited here for the first-year anniversary commemoration. The documentary will be donated to the permanent collection of the Museum of the City of New York and will also be made available for public use across the United States.

BBC to go Polish BBC Prime, the BBC's international English-language entertainment and education channel, is planning to broadcast a portion of its programming with Polish subtitles. The exact date of the launch remains unknown since the channel is still talking to Polish cable TV networks about its distribution. While BBC Prime is available to fewer than 20,000 cable TV subscribers in Poland, the British broadcaster hopes that its reach will expand once it implements programming with Polish subtitles. "Talks with UPC Telewizja Kablowa (UPC TK - Poland's largest cable TV network with 1 million subscribers) are in progress," said Anna Mieścicka, the director of marketing and public relations at Polymus, the representative of BBC Prime in Poland. "We're also talking to the Nowa Cyfra+ digital platform, through which we could reach rural areas. We're also in touch with the Education Ministry. We hoped that the ministry could help us to indicate schools that we could provide with free BBC Prime shows, or for the price we charge one subscriber per month (up to $0.10 per month)." Poland has 30,000 schools that could be reached both through cable and satellite, Mieścicka, said. In the past, BBC Prime was available through the Aster City cable network (386,000 subscribers) and via UPC TK, but both operators removed the channel from their programming packages. Mieścicka hoped BBC Prime would come back to many Polish homes thanks to its new service. "As soon as we announced our plans to introduce Polish subtitles in BBC Prime's programming, we got strong feedback from cable operators, which are interested in all kinds of new services," she said. "That would make it easier to attract subscribers." Before the Polish version of BBC Prime is available, a Czech-language edition will be introduced in October on the Czech Republic's two cable TV networks, TES Media and Interkabel. BBC Prime broadcasts in Europe, Africa and the Middle East to more than 10.8 million subscribers.

RMF FM plays on politicians In early September, Kraków-based RMF FM, Poland's leading private radio station, launched its new ad campaign promoting its news program "Fakty." According to Anna Kozłowska, RMF FM's spokeswoman, Poland has never seen anything similar to it before. The campaign, prepared by ArtFM, one of RMF FM's holding companies, will last until the end of October. It started with billboards with intriguing questions about well-known politicians, such as Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Leszek Miller, Lech and Jarosław Kaczyński and Marian Krzaklewski, which might have given an impression of a political campaign launched prior to the local government elections scheduled for October. "Obviously, it has nothing to do with the coming elections, and we did not intend to connect our campaign with this event," Kozłowska said. "On the contrary, we want to show how people are sick and tired of politics. But if some politicians are a little bit upset, it will only give our campaign an additional boost." In addition to billboards, RMF FM will broadcast a new version of a popular song performed by Jerzy Stuhr, a movie and theater celebrity, in which he will caricature the profession of a politician. The campaign will also consist of TV spots in which Stuhr will act as a politician speaking in Parliament. "The spot suggests that in the end, both politicians and TV viewers are similar, all involved and affected by the Polish model of governing," Kozłowska said. "The logo of RMF FM's 'Fakty,' which appears in the spot, means that it's up to us to explain this reality."

TV stations to get new owners U.S.-based satellite operators Intelsat and PanAmSat are independently planning to acquire Paris-based Eutelsat, the Wall Street Journal Europe reported last week. Eutelsat is Europe's leading satellite operator, which in 2001 transformed itself from an association of 48 national telecoms, including Telekomunikacja Polska (TPSA) into a private company. Eutelsat's Polish operations include the satellite transmission of private TV stations Polsat, TV4, TVN, TVN 24, and public broadcaster Telewizja Polska (TVP). It also digitally transmits Nowa Cyfra+. Vanessa O'Connor, Eutelsat's spokesperson declined to comment on the WSJ's story. But if Eutelsat is taken over, the new company will become a global satellite operator with at least 38 satellites, making it a serious competitor for Luxembourg-based SES Global, the first European operator to start consolidation with American companies. Last year, SES Global acquired General Electric's satellite division, GE Americom, and now owns 42 satellites covering Europe, North and South America, and Asia. SES Global and Eutelsat have operations in Poland, and they are both planning to launch satellite-based broadband data transmission services. For its part, SES Global, whose Polish representative is Astra Marketing, serves TV Puls. Earlier this year, Eutelsat defeated SES Global and signed a contract with Canal+ to serve its new digital platform created by the merger of Wizja TV and Cyfra+.