Q: Who does Canal+address its offer to?

A: Poland is one of those European countries where the vast majority of households – nearly 9 million of them – use pay TV services provided by cable operators and satellite platforms.

Canal+ is a family of Poland’s first premium TV channels. We have been present here since 1995. Canal+ Cyfrowy is the operator of the Cyfra+ digital platform, which was launched in 1998 and which broadcasts more than a dozen channels distributed in more than 400 cable networks.

Since we operate on a huge and highly competitive market, we aim to tailor the offer accordingly. We have four main packages together with a broad selection of add-on channels and packages. We stand out among Polish platforms with the richest offer of premium programming, movies, live sports and own productions. Our audience covers a wide spectrum, from subscribers who pick the basic package to those who are ready to pay over PLN100,00 a month to enjoy the complete offer, including premium channels and 9 HD channels. The diversity and comprehensive nature of our offer matters a lot to us. In terms of what our subscribers get for their money, we give very good value.



Q: What prospects do you think lie ahead of HD TV?



A: We first broadcast in HD in December 2006. In July 2007 Canal+ Sport HD carried the Speedway World Cup. It was our first own HD broadcast and the first high definition sportscast sold to other countries. As we develop the Cyfra+ HD offer, we carefully set certain criteria a channel must meet to join our platform. More transponder bandwidth is not enough for an HD channel to qualify. Our condition is that at least half the purchased content should be broadcast in HD. The market will need to adjust to these criteria. Why should a subscriber pay more for high definition if only 20% of the programmes are produced in that technology, and the rest of the content is just converted to that standard?



Q: Next year’s Olympic Games in Vancouver and the football World Cup in South Africa will be produced in 3D…



A: For pay TV events of this kind are not the most desirable. We are interested in the best sports events that can be watched practically all year round, such as premier league football. Matches are played 35 weeks a year.



Q: Canal+ is French-owned. What investments has the parent company made in Poland?



A: In the past 15 years vast amounts of money have been invested, running into hundreds of millions of euros, firstly in infrastructure. In 2008 we moved into a modern building with a total space of over 14,000 sq.m., which encompasses a state-of-the-art TV studio brimming with sophisticated production facilities, also in the HDTV standard. There’s an advanced digital platform uplink station and a customer service centre. The extensive digital multiplex system allows cannel distribution practically in every available standard (DVB-s, DVB-S2, DVB-H, DVB-IP etc.)

We also invest in the brand. Even though Canal+ and Cyfra+ are a pay TV network with some 1.5 million subscribers, their brand recognition is comparable to Poland’s public television network. As a result of a consistent strategy Canal+ won the Superbrand Polska title in the fourth edition of the competition for Poland’s strongest brands held by the international organisation Superbrands. In this year’s edition we have found ourselves among 150 brands recognised as the strongest on the Polish market. The selection was made from among 1,500 consumer brands present in Poland.

Last but not least, we spend a lot on building original content: sports productions and film co-productions.



Q: Could you tell us more about your original content?



A: We have been a longstanding partner of Polish soccer. We have the rights to all Polish premier league matches, as well as to the strongest foreign premier leagues. We carry English, Spanish, Italian and French football. We also broadcast NBA and WNBA events, the ULEB Euroleague, the Speedway Grand Prix and World Cup. We have rights to RBS 6 Nations and numerous professional boxing galas. Since last June we have added prestigious equestrian events to the offer.

For the past 13 years we have provided funding for over 120 feature films, such as “The Debt”, :Pan Tadeusz”, “My Nikifor”, “Tricks” and “Splinters”, as well as over 30 documentaries and shorts. The Canal+ Group was the main co-producer of Roman Polanski’s “The Pianist” which won three Academy Awards in 2003.

I keep stressing that being involved in film productions is very important to us. The mission to support the Polish cinema is embedded in this company’s DNA. Depending on the project we chip in 10-20% of the cost.

This year we have been participating in two international productions: “Project Chopin”, the most important film being made to mark next year’s celebrations of Chopin’s birth bicentenary and Jerzy Skolimowski’s new production “Essential Killing” featuring Emmanuelle Seigner.

“Project Chopin” is an exceptional movie. It is an animated film shot in a painstaking stereoscopic 3D technology. The world premiere is planned in Warsaw in late August. The film will also be shown in several other European cities.

It’s worth mentioning that for the past three years Poland has used a similar mechanism as the one applied in France to support its film industry. The Polish Film Institute was founded. It finances more than 40 productions a year. Canal+ co-finances the Institute, which means that we provide double sponsorship for the Polish cinema.

Besides, for a number of years we have co-organised the Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia. We are partners of Planete Doc Review, Ale Kino! World Movies and Era New Horizons festivals. The latter event promotes ambitious art house cinema.



Q: You also sponsor Poland’s number one charity the Great Orchestra of Christmas Aid…



A: Since last August the under-25 channel ZigZap has carried Owsiak.tv programmes produced by Jurek Owsiak, the man behind the charity. We were the first TV network which decided to carry live concerts of the Przystanek Woodstock festival. I have taken part in this event and it’s truly amazing. The opening day was attended by 300,000 young people, while the finale was watched by over 500,000, which is truly remarkable. It’s a cult event unique on a European scale. Our involvement in the Great Orchestra of Christmas Aid proves that pay TV can also play a public service. On the second Sunday of January we physically and in spirit join children in need who thanks to the campaign have better access to advanced medical treatment.



Q: Back to technology, which next to content influences customer satisfaction.



A: You’re right. Modern television is a comprehensive service. New technologies must follow the needs of our audiences. Today they expect not just quality content, but also solutions that will give them convenient access to it. In 2008 we introduced video-on-demand services. Every ten days we offer a new selection of the latest blockbusters and top TV series, just days after their US premiere. The offer is being constantly updated. Proof of its popularity is the fact that within the past six months the number of viewers who use the service regularly has trebled. The number of users runs into tens of thousands.



Q: How many viewers watch VOD offered by Canal+ France?



A: When it comes to the Canal+ Group, we in Poland have blazed the trail for VOD addressed solely to satellite users. More than 170,000 of our subscribers use an HDD decoder which enables the recording of movies from the offer.

Another of the platform’s novelties is Multiroom. This service, which is not available on any other platform, allows viewers to watch different channels on two TV sets in a single household, for the price of a single subscription.



Q: What about your plans for 2010?



A: I’m sure there’ll be lot of exciting things happening.