Will Vivendi be hard pushed to sell pay-TV Cyfra+?
The management of French media group Vivendi Universal announced that it
wants to get rid of Cyfra+, its Polish pay-TV subsidiary, as it is one of
the biggest sources of company losses. "The main loss generating areas have
been clearly identified. Some of them have been reduced, stopped or sold.
The Canal+ divisions in Italy, Poland, Benelux countries and Scandinavia are
to leave the Vivendi Universal structure," read a statement from the Vivendi
management board. However, Polish media market analysts believe that it
could be hard to find a buyer, due to the slump in the advertising market.
"One possibility is to sell the TV to financial investors who have the money
and can sit out the difficult times." Another big question mark is the value
of Cyfra+. In its report published in July, investment bank BNP Paribas said
that the potential sale of Vivendi's assets in Poland and Scandinavia would
probably yield nothing. Cyfra+ management obviously has an entirely
different opinion, claiming that the subscriber base of 700,000 has
tremendous value in itself. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 29) T.J.
