19-04-2009

Zone Europe leaves Hungary

By Gyorgy Karpati
    Art house film TV channel Zone Europe (www.hu.zoneeuropa.tv) will cancel its broadcast in Hungary from May 1 and will focus on its Polish TV channel.

    Owner Chello Central Europe announced in a statement that it will increase content for its flagship Polish station. Zone Europe broadcasts current European art house films and plans to show Hungarian films in the future. Chello Central Europe will focus in Hungary on the popular thematic channel Filmmuzeum (www.filmmuzeum.hu) which was redesigned last year. The Filmmuzeum will also broadcast programs from Zone Europe.

    Because of the decision, the Hungarian portfolio of the Chello Central Europe Broadcasting Zrt. will contain nine TV channel in total (deko, Filmmuzeum, Minimax, Spektrum, SPORT1, SPORT2, TV Paprika, Zone Romantica, Zone Club) and a joint venture with MGM.

    Operating in Budapest Chello Central Europe Broadcasting Zrt. is one of the five business units of Chellomedia (www.chellomedia.com) which was established in 1998 and is the part of Liberty Global Inc. In addition to its thematic channel business, it operates At Media, Poland's leading thematic channel advertising sales agency, and Mojo Productions which is a full service production house catering to local and international channels in the Central-Eastern Europe region.