Last week it was announced that after barely 2 years of operation Naspers' Showmax is abruptly cutting its losses and shutting down in Poland where it has been operating as well outside of South Africa and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, ending the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service's lofty international expansion plans.
Now Wirtualnew Media reports that Poland's public broadcaster is interested in possibly buying Showmax Poland from Showmax CEE, the parent company of Showmax Poland, and the rights to its content, so that it could bolster TVP's own video-on-demand (VOD) streaming service, VOD TVP.
Marciej Stanecki, TVP vice-president, said that after Showmax Poland's withdrawal from the Polish market, " a certain free pace to be developed by its competitors will be created, and th fight in the Polish VOD segment is very fierce".
"Telewizja Polska is potentially interested in buying content from this platform."
"As a board member, I can say that we are potentially interested in purchasing the Showmax Poland platform service and license. It would be a complement to our strongly developing VOD TVP platform."
"Of course, we will be able to make the final decision after conducting the valuation and confirming the content of the offer. From the point of view of TVP, the library of rights and the websites themselves are of particular interest," said Marciej Stanecki, noting that TVP had already made contact with Showmax.
Maciej Sojka, the head of Showmax in Poland, told Wirtualnew Media he's not willing to comment on the TVP interest.
