21-08-2011

TVN Group adds Monolith Films to Pay TV

By Katarzyna Grynienko

    TVN, the operator of the 'n' DTH platform, has signed a long term agreement to add titles distributed by Monolith Films to its HD offer.

    ITI Neovision (www.n.pl), the television channel distribution unit of TVN S.A. Group ( www.tvn.pl) and the operator of the 'n' platform, told FNE that each year over 60 titles distributed by Monolith Films (www.monolith.pl) will be added to the nFilm HD channels line up. The company has not yet revealed when the co-operation will start, but confirmed that is a long term contract. Monolith Films is an independent Polish film producer and distributor, active on the local market since 1998. 100% of the shares of the company are owned by Mariusz Łukomski.

    The agreement is consistent with ITI Neovision 's strategy to make 'n' television more competitive on the pay TV market in Poland by enriching its film offer. In July 2011 the company signed a similar contract with 20th Century FOX (www.fox.co.uk). The contract will be active from January 2012 and entails that 65 titles from FOX will be added to the paid channels available for the 'n' platform subscribers. Currently, the nFilm HD channels offer mainly productions from Paramount Pictures (www.paramount.com) and Dreamworks (www.dreamworksanimation.com).

    With this new co-operation, ITI Neovision seems to invade the territory previously dominated by CANAL+ (www.canalplus.pl) as the latter has similar contracts both with Monolith Flms and FOX. CANAL+ issued a special statement that its co-operation with Monolith Films will still be continued despite this new agreement.

    TVN Grupa launched the digital television and radio 'n' platform in 2006 and created a separate operator ITI Neovosion to manage it in 2009. In March 2011 N television had over 830,000 subscribers in Poland.