Many obstacles stand in way of Nasza/Polsat teaming
Nasza TV could be frustrated in its attempt to team with Polsat 2 to create a new television station, TV4. Sources close to Nasza last week said that the station's broadcast license prohibits it from joining forces with a national broadcaster, which Polsat is.
Supraregional TV station Nasza and Polsat, a predominant broadcaster in Poland on par with Telewizja Polska (TVP) and tvn, had intended to launch the new station on April 1.
Establishing the station has been further complicated, however, by the fact that a regional court recently reinstated Henryk Chodysz as Nasza's president. The court found that Chodysz was wrongfully terminated last June as part of a decision by the managing board that the courts have now found to have been illegally in control of the company.
As part of reinstating Chodysz, the regional court said that Nasza's former managing board was also wrongfully removed last summer. The shareholders meeting of Polskie Media, the holder of Nasza's concession, pushed for board's dismissal and Chodysz exited as a result.
While the courts have ruled succinctly on the issue, neither Nasza's current managing board nor the Radio and Television Council (KRRiTV) has paid any attention to the decision.
"The Television and Radio Council (the issuer of broadcasting concessions) has to resolve a dilemma," Chodysz said. "The council should react somehow to the court's decision instead of meeting with the Nasza TV management and talking about establishing a new channel."
Jan Sek, the KRRiTV's deputy chairman, said the council is not in a position to comment on the court's decisions. "It's a civil case and where the court is only competent to judge," he said.
Sek didn't rule out, however, that Nasza's concession might indeed contain a clause banning it from merging with national broadcasters. "It's all possible to establish," he said. "Any concession is issued for a certain period of time (10 years) and area and its conditions are binding."
Meanwhile, last Monday Nasza TV applied to the council to change its name to TV4 and organized a conference for ad agencies about the new channel's offerings.
On all of this activity, the council is mute, both about whether Nasza TV has the right to establish the new station as well as the difficulty over who is actually in charge of the broadcaster.
"The council learns about it all from the papers," said Joanna Stepien, spokeswoman for KRRiTV's chairman Juliusz Braun.
She said that neither Nasza TV nor Polsat have formally announced a merger, and that all information has come directly from the press. "It's too early for our official statement," she said.
Stepien said that during the most recent meeting with Polsat, members of that station's supervisory board refused to provide any information on the fusion until an agreement is reached with Nasza's creditors. Nasza has zl. 65 million ($15.85 million) in debts, and Polsat is waiting for the station to hammer out a deal with those parties before it gets involved.
"Polsat is speechless, arguing that its comments would be premature," Stepien said. "The management of Nasza TV was more talkative with the council, though."
According to Stepien, Tomasz Kurzewski, Nasza's managing board member, told the council that while the stations will work together on TV4, there will be no fusion of capital. Both entities will still remain technically independent, he said.
"They already submitted a motion for a change of their concession, but only in terms of its name," Stepien said. "In their motion they said that to change the image of the station they will continue broadcasting under a different name."
Under that condition, said Stepien, the new station would not violate the conditions of Nasza's broadcast license.
An additional threat to the fusion could come from another party, broadcaster EBS, a branch company of European media concern Scandinavian Broadcasting Systems, one of Nasza's creditors and a contender at one point last year to become a strategic investor in the station.
Chodysz had led Nasza's discussions with EBS about a buyout, but those talks died when Chodysz was removed as president. If EBS backs the court and Chodysz's claim that he is still Nasza's president, then it could in turn sink the station's ongoing negotiations with creditors.
If that happens, Polsat will likely pull the plug on any possible fusion.
Chodysz refused to comment, however, on whether he planned to go back to the station.
Nasza's current managing board had hoped that the talks with Polsat to create TV4 would help in working out an agreement with major creditors, which include Kredyt Bank in addition to EBS. In late February, it looked as if Nasza had reached agreement with those parties.
But Chodysz now says that EBS is taking issue with the agreement, and the possible teaming with Polsat.
"Polsat has no legal grounds to create that new channel," he said.
