Int'l music TV cos. capitalize on programming po polsku
This summer's launch of a handful of domestic music TV programs looks certain to turn Polish music television on its ear.
On June 12, Viva Polska, a six-hour daily Polish-music TV program that is part of Germany's Viva, went on the air. Viva Fernsehen und COKG, which runs Viva and has been in Poland since 1994, decided last year to tailor its programming to local tastes and languages (see the Business Journal, April 24-30). Poland was its first target. Out of Viva Polska's 10 programs, the majority are in Polish, such as the weekly hit list "Lista Hop Bec." Viva Polska is scheduled to broadcast on 150 cable networks around the country, including one of the largest, Aster City, and on digital platform Cyfra+.
"Viva's success in Germany gave me a job because MTV Networks finally decided to regionalize its programming," said Artur Budziszewski, new director general of MTV Polska, another Polish music television program that is set to start July 7. In March, MTV Networks Europe announced a joint venture with UPCtv, the programming arm of United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC), to launch two music channels addressed to Polish audiences. The first one, MTV Polska, is a 24-hour daily program that will replace MTV Europe. According to Budziszewski, MTV Polska will be available on Wizja TV, the digital platform owned by UPC. "We're also talking with (cable networks) Aster City and Polska Telewizja Kablowa," he added. Cable customers, who will decide whether or not to include MTV Polska in their channel package, will have to pay $0.14-$0.17 per household socket, "more than for Viva, " Budziszewski said. MTV Polska will contain a mixture of Polish programs and MTV Europe's products, including "Europe Top 20" and thematic weekends, presented by four Polish personalities or supplied with Polish subtitles. "Thanks to Viva and thanks to our presence, Polish performers are getting a promotional tool," Budziszewski said. "Our ambition is to promote Polish singers and my personal ambition is to organize an MTV Europe Awards in Poland one day."
Both channels said they might have problems with Polish content, though. Video clips produced alongside new singles are still a luxury. "The number of Polish video clips is growing every week, but right now it's enough for about 30% of the program," said Magdalena Wasinska, a PR specialist from Position, which represents Viva in Poland. "We'll need more videos, more than just one per new compact disc, since it's standard practice now," Budziszewski said. MTV Polska's launch will be celebrated in the city of Sopot on the Baltic Sea, with a special party starting at midnight on July 7 and, among other attractions, a concert by the group Moloko.
Portal launches are also a hotbed of media business activity this summer. June 19 saw the launch of vizzavi.fr, the French language section of what will be a multi-access European internet portal, Vizzavi. The portal is the brainchild of Vivendi, the French media and utilities group, and mobile phone company Vodafone AirTouch. Vizzavi will be available via mobile phones, personal computers, television and personal digital assistants. "It's the fluid connection between you and the important things in your life," reads the introductory message on Vizzavi's site.
Vizzavi's other sites will be launched in the U.K. in July and in Germany and Italy by the end of this year. Content will be provided, among others, by VivendiNet, a joint venture between Vivendi and Canal+, of which Vivendi owns 49%. And content might be boosted even further if Vivendi's merger with Seagram, a Canadian whisky and media company, goes through. Seagram owns Universal Studios, one of Hollywood's most famous film companies, as well as Universal Music Group, which includes major labels such as Geffen, Interscope and Deutsche Grammophon. Last week, talks on a possible merger, which commentators compared to the merger of America Online (AOL) and Time Warner, were in progress.
No wonder that at a time when the internet business is flourishing publishers are considering magazines and other publications about the web as potentially lucrative undertakings. According to market speculators, Parkiet Spolka, the publisher of financial newspaper Parkiet, might be working on a magazine about the internet. Lukasz Zuk, president of Parkiet Spolka, neither confirmed nor denied the speculations. "It's not out of the question, but it's also not decided yet," he said. "It's too early. Within a month to six weeks we should know whether we will do it or not."
Several such titles already exist on the market, however. Magazyn Internetowy WWW, published by Zjednoczone Przedsiebiorstwa Rozrywkowe, has been available since May 1997 and is addressed to a wide group of internet users. According to Marek Jaslan, the magazine's editor in chief, the market for such publications is growing. "The internet itself will not replace paper, it's too chaotic a medium," he said. In mid-June, Vogel Publishing, which puts out popular computer magazine Chip, started a new project called Internet dla kazdego (The Internet for Everyone) a self-study guide to the internet. In April, another publishing house based in Wroclaw, Silver Shark, launched Net, an internet magazine with a circulation of 60,000. "The first issue sold really well, at 50,000," said Witold Zagrodny, president of Silver Shark. "If it continued that way I would be really glad." In addition to Net, Silver Shark publishes CD Action, which has a sizeable circulation of 200,000 and, according to Zagrodny, sells at least 160,000 copies on a regular basis.
