Satellite and TV equipment distributors point to flawed plan

Canal+ Cyfrowy, operator of the Nowa Cyfra+ digital TV platform, announced details last week of a zł. 15 million ($3.57 million) "mega operation" to point 300,000 subscriber antennas at a single satellite operator. "We've hired 1,000 people to run this operation and 5,000 dishes will be adjusted daily," said Marek Piotrowski, executive director in charge of consolidating digital platforms Wizja TV and Cyfra+. But licensed satellite and TV equipment distributors, which distribute and install Cyfra+ decoders, said last week that companies hired to do the work have no experience in the satellite- and TV-installing business. "The way it had been planned, the operation may turn into a complete failure," said Andrzej Mizgała, director of Asat, a Katowice-based satellite and TV equipment distributor and fitter.

Canal+ Cyfrowy hired Comtica, an IT company, and Dem'a Promotion Polska, a promotion agency, to administer the subscriber database and run the operation. "This operation has to be transparent because subscribers will have to deal with complete strangers who will come to their homes," said Christian Kozar, president of Canal+ Polska. "That's why we had to hire two professional companies that would be able to train people to handle 300,000 customers in three months. The whole operation has almost a military character but it has to be so, it's a serious matter." Mizgała questioned Canal+'s strategy to outsource to Dem'a Promotion, which he said hired novices rather than professionals. "No professional would accept the rates they are offering so they hired an army of unemployed," he said. "You cannot train someone to become a professional fitter in one week. It's a misunderstanding because they should have allowed us, who actually installed the antennas years ago to re-point them now." Dem'a hired 700 people who after one-week of training are to adjust some 300,000 satellite dishes throughout Poland and be paid zł. 20 per operation. "It wouldn't even be enough to pay for their gas," said Krzysztof Surgowt, director of Astra Marketing, subsidiary of Luxembourg-based SES Global, an international satellite operator that lost a competition with Eutelsat to beam the signal of Nowa Cyfra+. "According to my calculations, fitters should get zł. 50 for each re-pointing," he said. "Besides, such adjustment of a satellite dish for digital broadcasting is not an easy operation. You need extreme precision and experience."

According to Mizgała, errors committed by inexperienced personnel will affect the reputation of both Cyfra+ and professional satellite equipment distributors that have been on the market for more than 10 years. "Canal+ said the whole operation won't cost subscribers a penny but what if they turn to us for advice when re-pointing is unsuccessful?" Mizgała said. "And you cannot rule out situations where criminals will pretend to be fitters. I've already got signals from our clients and subscribers of Cyfra+ that they're afraid of letting strangers in their houses." Canal+'s Kozar said the operation would be carefully monitored. "We established a special emergency team that will immediately react if problems occur," he said. "And as for distributors we haven't forgotten them. In our 2002 (budget) we assigned zł. 20 million to remunerate them (as compared to zł. 15 million in 2001)." Despite Kozar's declarations, TV and satellite distributors last week said they established a national association to defend their interests. "We have to be able to defend our interests and big companies don't pay attention to you if you're small," Mizgała said. The association has 23 members but according to Mizgała in the future it should attract as many as 1,000, covering 90% of the market. Nowa Cyfra+, the new digital TV platform born of the recently merged Wizja TV and Cyfra+ operators, programming has been available since March 1 but is still beamed via two satellites. Former Wizja TV subscribers will be pointed at Eutelsat's Hot Bird satellite. The firm will kick off the 90-day operation to readjust subscribers' antennas on April 10.