24-07-2008

France Telecom introduces a new satellite platform to the Polish market

By Katarzyna Grynienko
    The Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported that the new satellite platform from Polish Telecommunication S.A. (TP www.tp.pl), owned by the international join-stock company France Telecom (www.francetelecom.com),will launch in the first half of August 2008.
    TP already provides a packet of channels available with "Videostrada" which has 49,000 users across Poland. The company will upgrade its offer through a co-operation with Cyfra +(www.cyfraplus.pl), the biggest digital satellite television provider in Poland.

    "It won't be a totaly new digital satellite platform but a new way of reaching the vierwrs with an offer, that we already provide," said Stephane France, the international head of program content in France Telecom.

    TP will stop using land senders and the internet in order to provide 80 channels in the digital format. France Telecom is also the owner of Orange, currently one of the biggest mobile phone and internet providers on the Polish market. Although the new decoders will be sold by TP S.A. it is probable that the whole project will have the Orange logo as part of FT's long term plan to turn it into an international digital entertainment brand offering not only television channels but music, video and game services.