TV Puls looks to satellites for salvation
Catholic TV Niepokalanow signed an exclusive agreement last week with Luxembourg-based Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES), a Luxembourg-based global satellite operator, that will allow the station to transmit its TV Puls channel via analog satellite and increase the program's reach by about 16 percentage points, the Business Journal has learned.
Until last week's deal, TV Puls, which was launched in March, was broadcast into the homes of 13.5% of all national viewers through its terrestrial system. With the help of its cable TV operations and presence on digital platform Wizja TV, TV Puls reached more than half of all viewers, said Robert Szaniawski, from TV Puls' PR office. Now, with the SES deal, the station will be able to reach more than 66% of Poland's TV viewing audience, said a source, who wished to remain anonymous.
By boosting its reach, TV Puls will be able to compete for ad revenue with other channels such as private station TVN, one of the fastest-growing stations in the country with an audience reach of 68%, according to Andrzej Soltysik, a TVN spokesman.
After TV Puls' launch two months ago, media analysts were uniform in their assessment that with the station's limited reach, it would be tough for it to attract advertisers and find its niche in an already tight market.
Earlier this year, TV Niepokalanow failed to expand its terrestrial reach after it applied to the National Television and Radio Council (KRRiTV) for additional frequencies. The council had been generous to TVN, granting it four frequencies. TV4, a channel launched last year and controlled by No. 1 private station Polsat, received one frequency. With three frequencies remaining after France-based Canal+ renounced eight in total last year, the council still has to decide which broadcaster they will go to. And all three stations TVN, TV Puls and TV4 are determined to bid for them.
Meanwhile, since the number of terrestrial frequencies is limited, commercial TV broadcasters realize that for the next few years they will still depend on analog satellite broadcasting as it remains one of the easiest ways of reaching viewers in Poland. While many Poles are unable to afford the digital equipment and subscription fees necessary when joining one of the country's three digital platforms, they can afford satellite antennas for analog broadcasting, market insiders said.
TV broadcasters that choose to beam their analog signal via satellite can choose from Eutelsat (http://www.eutelsat.org), a Paris-based operator, which is in the process of transforming itself into a private company from an association of 48 national telecom operators, and SES, which is represented in Poland by Astra Marketing (http://www.astra.lu). Eutelsat provides analog transmission for Polsat, TVN, TV4 and RTL7, whereas Astra serves Wizja TV's digital platform. TV Niepokalanow will be its first analog client.
To boost its reach, TVN has been using Eutelsat's "Hot Bird" service to beam its signal since last November. "It compensates us for shortages in terrestrial frequencies," said Bogdan Malecki, director of TVN's technical department. "Our signal is then available everywhere through the cheapest and simplest equipment." According to Malecki, while analog broadcasting via satellite is expensive for broadcasters, it's cheap for viewers. "According to our in-house analysis, digital broadcasting via satellite won't replace analog very soon because Poles are not that well off yet. The current 800,000 subscribers of the three digital platforms speaks for itself, it's not the number they (platforms) wish they had."
RTL7, one of the smallest commercial TV stations in Poland with a 3.5% market share, also depends on analog broadcasting via satellite. "We don't broadcast via terrestrial transmitters at all," said Andrzej Damaziak, director of the technical department at RTL7. "We are a cable and satellite television station here." While the station uses Eutelsat's satellite for analog broadcasting, Damaziak declined to say how much it pays for the service. "It's a couple of million dollars a year, I guess," he said. "It would be obviously cheaper to replace analog with digital because from one transponder you can beam not one but eight signals. But in Poland, due to the financial conditions, analog will keep going for another three to five or even 10 years."
Meanwhile, analog broadcasting via satellite is also a source of confusion as no broadcasters are able to assess how much it expands their reach.
"There is no research on the use of satellite equipment in Poland," TVN's Malecki said. "The satellite reach (analog) is beyond any estimates," RTL7's Damaziak added.
Meanwhile, both Astra Marketing and Eutelsat, estimated that the signal from their satellites (both digital and analog) can be reached in over 2.5 million out of 12.6 million Polish households with TV sets.
