Merger of Wizja TV, Cyfra + given official go-ahead

Cezary Banasinski, director of the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), has said that the office has approved the merger of two Polish satellite television platforms, Wizja TV and Cyfra +. The deal between Wizja, owned by Dutch cable operator UPC, and Cyfra +, which belongs to Vivendi Universal's Canal Plus, is now expected to be completed by the end of the year. Malgorzata Babik, Cyfra + PR director, said in an interview with Puls Biznesu, "It is our intention to complete the merger by the end of this year and to propose a new offer of the joint platform towards the end of the first quarter of 2002." The merged platforms will have 700,000 subscribers, which analysts say is sufficient to guarantee profitability. According to the UOKiK, the merger will bring considerable benefits to customers in terms of the possible lowering of subscription charges and the creation of more interesting programming for the new platform. (Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 4; Puls Biznesu, p. 9) P.W.