NBC Euro reach grows
Channel enters Spain via CSD, eyes Gallic entry
The agreement, officially unveiled in Madrid today, also opens the way for NBC Europe to enter France, nine months behind the original Gallic launch schedule.
CSD is 85% owned by Sogecable, a joint venture between French paybox Canal Plus and Spanish media conglom Prisa.
With an Italian launch via digital platform Telepiu expected next month, NBC's pan-European service now has a foothold in the majority of Europe, giving the channel a potential reach of some 58 million homes.
Despite unsuccessful efforts by the Spanish government to muddy the digital waters by saying that CSD's decoders were not authorized, the creation of a rival digital platform, Via Digital, and an ongoing challenge to CSD's exclusive rights to top Spanish soccer games, NBC Europe president and CEO Allan Horlick said his optimism never waned.
"From the earliest days, we felt these were the people we wanted to have a relationship with," Horlick told Daily Variety. "They had the technical infrastructure and the commercial know-how."
Early estimates suggest the channel will have between 120,000 and 150,000 subscribers by the end of the year, according to Tim Heath, NBC Europe's director of networks.
Gallic market key
The deal has a further benefit for the company, finally opening up the Gallic market. NBC Europe chairman Patrick Cox inked an agreement with France's Canal Satellite --- another subsid of pay television giant Canal Plus --- last October, and at the time announced that NBC Europe would be available to French homes by the end of the year. It wasn't.
The French feed was via a NetHold operated transponder, but technical sound problems made for wobbly lip-sync. When Canal Plus acquired NetHold late last year, the transponder was sidelined, leaving NBC Europe with a deal but no way of beaming into France.
The Spanish signal is being sent via a CSD-owned and operated transponder on an Astra bird, which can also target the French territory. "Spain triggers our deal in France," noted Patrick Cox.
While the Peacock web is the only U.S. major in Europe (albeit in a different form from what is seen in the States), competition exists from other English-lingo news and current affairs-based offerings such as CNN and BBC World.
Localized service
Horlick, who took over the presidency of NBC Europe from Roger Ogden at the start of August, said the channel will continue to differentiate itself from its rivals by providing local versions of the service, primarily in the form of Spanish promotional slots for the channel as well as Spanish sub-titling for certain programs.
"We have a 13-hour turnaround between airing some shows domestically and showing them in Europe, and by January we hope to have the subtitling fully functional," said Horlick. NBC Europe already offers three hours per day in Dutch and has been doing German-lingo versioning for nearly 12 months.
On the German front, NBC Europe's 1996 agreement with the Kirch group's DF1 digital platform will not be subject to renegotiation, despite the recent Kirch decision to shutter DF1 in favor of a platform built around the Kirch and CLT/Ufa-owned Premiere pay television.
German market 'exciting'
"I think developments in Germany are positive," commented Patrick Cox. "All the bits are now in place for digital to take off and there is no doubt that the German television market is an exciting place to be."
Just how exciting, in terms of revenues for NBC Europe, is hard to tell. Neither Cox nor Horlick would be drawn on the channel's current financial state, although Horlick noted that NBC Europe is meant to hit operating breakeven by 2000. He added that the bulk of revenues comes from ad coin rather than subscriptions and would continue to do so.
Naysayers wonder whether NBC's strategy of launching a pan-European generalist channel --- accompanied by its business service CNBC --- makes sense, given that most of the other U.S. heavyweights have chosen to unspool thematic services such as Cartoon Network, Disney Channel or Fox Kids, rather than go for the generalist option.
"We believe our strategy is correct," countered Horlick. "We offer a pan-European service hitting around 50 million homes, which is a distributor's dream, and at the same time we are offering regionalization, which allows commercials to target specific territories."
