A battle is brewing in Poland over the best way to finance public broadcasting. A parliamentary commission has been looking into the matter after the new government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced it intends to abolish the radio and TV license fee.
Private Polish broadcaster TVN captured the top audience share in November for the sought-after 16-49 age group for the first time in its history.
Poland's advertising market rose by 12.7% to 4.48 billion zloties (1.3 billion euros) in the first nine months of 2007 with the highest growth in the Internet segment, according to market researcher Starlink.
ITI Group reported consolidated nine-month revenues up 33.1% over the same period in 2006 to 318.6 million euros, driven by the performance of TVN Group.
The live-action fairy tale The Magic Tree by Andrzej Maleszka, produced by Polish public broadcaster TVP SA, has become the first Polish winner of an International Emmy.
Barrandov Studios now can lay claim to the largest film stage in Europe, with the opening this month of a complex of three new soundproof film stages. Construction began this spring and cost more than 100 million crowns (€3.8 million).
For the first time in nearly two decades, Polish films will once again be seen in Cuba. Seven Polish films that have been made in the past four years will be screened during the next week, beginning with the 2005 film Persona Non Grata by Krzysztof Zanussi.
UPC Holding BV reports third-quarter revenues rose 10% to €830 million year-on-year, driven primarily by subscriber growth and the impact of acquisitions, particularly Karneval in the Czech Republic. UPC added 24,000 digital cable subscribers in the Czech Republic while its Romanian and Hungarian operations showed some improvement over the first and second quarters despite the impact of competition.
Poland's TVN Group, part of the ITI media holding, reports third-quarter net revenues increased by 38% over the same period in 2006 to 297 million zloty (€81.9 million). The company also reported its all-day audience share increased to 21.2% from 20.4% last year.
A Bulgarian film, A Movie Buff at the Turn of the Century by director Petar Odadjiev, was named best international documentary at the New York Independent Film and Video festival, one of the world's biggest movie forums.