Cyfrowy Polsat and Discovery team up to create Polish OTT JV

Polish pay TV operator Cyfrowy Polsat and Discovery are to create a joint OTT TV platform for the Polish and international markets.

The new offering will provide access to Polish films, series, documents, sports and entertainment programs in one place. The offer will include a wide range of local TVN and Polsat productions as well as third party content, according to the pair. Discovery is the owner of Polsat’s major rival in the commercial TV market, TVN, and also part owner of the Canal+ pay TV offering.

The note on the launch of the service alluded to Discovery’s German JV with ProSiebenSat.1, Joyn, as a model for the Polish offering.

The new platform will be an independent entity that the pair believe will deliver sufficient scale to attract international content suppliers as well as advertisers.

The initial model will be focused on AVOD and the service aims to be available on all platforms. However, the partners aim to introduce SVOD at a later date.

The pair’s existing OTT TV platforms will continue to be made available to viewers for now. Discovery/TVN operates Player.pl while Cyfrowy Polsat owns Ipla.tv. The partners said that the shape of these offerings will be determined in the near future.

“Today, viewers expect easy access to their favourite programmes in one place. Our service will be just such a platform enabling viewing the most popular series, films and programmes aimed at Polish recipients at any time and in any place. This new joint venture is part of our international strategy. We believe that right now is the best time for TV broadcasters to create such products that meet the needs of consumers. Polish viewers have access to many websites with international productions, and our initiative will be for them a natural platform to access Polish content,”said  Kasia Kieli, president and managing director of Discovery in the EMEA region.

“We are glad that we co-create a project that can become a real competitor for international websites. Our ambition is for the platform to offer the best and highest quality technological solutions. It is particularly important that this challenging project can be realised in Poland. Thanks to this, Polish content will also be able to reach international viewers, ” said Maciej Stec, VP of the management board for strategy of Cyfrowy Polsat and Polkomtel.