After years of speculation on Monday ITI Group and Canal + Group reported that a majority stake in TVN will take over the British company Southbank Media Ltd. And this, in turn, belongs to the American company Scripps Networks Interactive. For about 52.7 per cent. TVN shares Americans will pay 584 million euros.
The choice of the buyer TVN is surprising: typed that more Americans will buy TV from Time Warner or Discovery Communications, possibly Germany from Bauer Media Group.
Little known in our country now has Scripps Networks in Poland only two cable channels: Travel Channel and the Food Polsat. Its main market is the US. In addition to the television company is also active in the publishing industry and the Internet, leading, among others, home furnishings store One Kings Lane. Its shares are listed on the Stock Exchange New York Stock Exchange and are included in the Standard & amp; Poor’s 500. In the last quarter of its revenue amounted to 669 million dollars.
– This transaction is an important step in an ongoing strategy to strengthen our international position and provides us with a significant increase in coverage in Europe. Poland has a dynamic media market with high potential for development – commented Kenneth W. Lowe, head of Scripps Networks Interactive.
In 1994, Lowe founded the HGTV cable channel mainly dealing with the subject of home and garden equipment. He became the nucleus of Scripps Networks Interactive success. Three years later, the company took over the cooking channel Food Network. He currently runs a few other stations in the United States, including DIY tips and country music. The company also has a half-interest in the British TV UKTV – the second shareholder is the BBC network.
The company said that buying TVN Scripps Networks also takes over the entire debt of the Polish company, whose value amounts to 840 million euros. Now the agreement is awaiting approval by the regulator. The deal comes as a surprise, especially for media and analysts for some employees station
N as the negotiation
In 1971. Was the famous documentary “Bus with the word” end “. ‘ It was a story about the Peace Race watched from the window of a moving bus far behind the peloton and the driving cyclists who can not face the hardships of the competition. Written and directed by Mariusz Walter, the rising star of TVP. Three decades later, he was the star of another television – TVN – which he invented and created. He did it with John Wejchert, a friend and business partner. Today, however, he has to take the bus with the word “end”. This final farewell to the dream of his own, a great television. TVN is now taken over by the new foreign owner. The negotiations finally came to an end.
The interest was considerable, though a minority shareholder of TVN, French Canal +, which in 2011. Reserved the right of first refusal, for unclear reasons, resigned and his part issued a joint sales. So the buyer will buy a majority stake to keep him full control and authority. The negotiations were not easy, because the seller demanded a high price. But the contract amounting to the approximately 2.4 billion zł is the big players of the media industry is not a particular expense. Moreover, it was expected that the value of the contract could sing even zł 3.5 billion.
It was already the second approach to liquidate TVN. The first took place in 2011. When the French company Vivendi, owner of Canal +, associated with belonging to the artists and their families TVN ITI concern. The main purpose of the agreement was the merger of two television digital platforms – French C + and TVN belonging to “n”. So was controlled by the French platform nc +. At the same time the French bought from ITI 230 million for a minority stake of the company N-Vision, which is a major shareholder of a listed TVN. Also reserved the right to purchase the rest of the years 2015-18. But not bought.
A little complicated, but business structures created by the owners of TVN never belonged to the simple. Years ago, in an interview with POLICIES, Jan Wejchert asked why ITI is a Luxembourg holding company, looked surprised and answered in two words: tax optimization. Polish business leaders for a primer.
The concern in the construction
The ITI was born in the early 80s, when Walter of Wejchert tied to business. Initially it was a company of “soap and a bit of everything,” but after 1989. Accomplices began building the entertainment and media company. With time, they were joined by a third partner – Swiss financier Bruno Valsangiacomo. Flywheel was transregional terrestrial television TVN, which got a license until 1997. (In 1993. Lost the race for the concession nationwide with Polsat Zygmunt Solorz-Zak).
Over time, expanded coverage and range of programming TVN creating multiple channels, including the most famous TVN24. They decided also to many other investments, including Multikino cinemas in the network, the digital platform “n”, the Internet portal Yahoo, a company producing programs – Endemol-Neovision, publishing Pascal, “Universal Weekly” and even a football club Legia.
– This was smart design business, in which each element is associated with the other. Skillful collaboration gave synergies. The whole group was focused on the production of high-quality multimedia content – explains Andrew Zarębski, a former member of the National Broadcasting Council (NBC), an expert in the media market. In tandem masters W. Wejchert give peace of mind and business experience, and Walter enthusiasm and knowledge about making good television. It is his merit was made payable TVN24 news channel. The experts saw it as another extravaganza Walter, who apparently did not realize that it directs the state TVP, but private television. Nobody will want to pay to watch the talking heads about politics, persuading. – One of the major consulting firms prepared a report on TVN. The document was available in two versions, for both partners. Wejchert version contained a risk analysis for the company which is the idea of creating TVN24 with a warning that it can not go wrong. Walter does not even attempt to persuade – Zarębski Andrew laughs.
It turned out that, contrary to the experts TVN24 quickly began to make the news channel and turned into a kind of institution Polish socio-political life. Today, the rank of the policy depends on whether there is on TVN24. Attempts to boycott, taken by PiS, ended in failure.
The station debuted in September 2001. Transmissions with dramatic terrorist attacks in New York, which allowed her to quickly gain the audience. To promote the main channel TVN afterburner turned out to be the “Big Brother”. The decision was risky and expensive, but it paid off. TVN quickly earned the position of software leader, whose competitors to imitate. Sometimes quite cheesy, as Polsat, which at the “Big Brother” replied the programs of his own invention, “Two Worlds” and “Bar”.
Solorz- Zak has always been famous for savings. On the TV looked soberly, as a machine for making money, and not, as Walter, on something special. For him, had the audience at the lowest possible cost. Therefore Polsat never invest either in spectacular scenery and the stars, or in their promotion. Meanwhile, TVN is a trademark. Every Pole knows the star of this station: Gessler, Rozenek, Provincial, Olejnik, Prokop, Drzyzga – even if you do not watch them on TV.
The owners of TVN, as opposed to polsatowskiego competitor, proceeded from the assumption that a good TV must cost, and did not spare. – TVN always directed primarily to urban, affluent audience. From the point of view of advertisers is the most valuable audience, but also due to the necessity. At the beginning of the signal ground station was available mainly in large Polish cities. This corresponded to cover less than half of the country – explains Maciej Korzeniowski, a partner at consulting firm PwC.
Solorz-Zak Polsat in debt only when I decided to buy Polkomtel, the operator of the Plus network. His idea is to group media and telecommunication and financial power. TVN owners borrowed to make good television. They often incur excessive optimism is not always appreciated the importance of the changes taking place in the media market and economic fluctuations, which translated into a decline in advertising revenue. As a result, the debt quickly became one of the major problems TVN and forced the owners to increasingly nervous movements.
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