Nova helps lead way as Czech AQS bows
Stock company pacting with Prima
The joint stock company has signed its first contract with Nova TV, for which it works on an exclusive basis. Nova has disbanded its own acquisitions department, which has moved en masse to AQS. At the same time, Nova is financially guaranteeing the purchases made by the fledgling company.
Final negotiations
According to Zach, the company is in the final stage of negotiations with Prima TV, the second national commercial broadcaster. It is expected that AQS would also provide exclusive acquisition services for Prima.
The new company has approached pubcaster Czech TV as well; however, veteran CTV acquisitions head Jan Rubes has been an outspoken opponent of a monopoly buyer for the Czech Republic. Zach acknowledged that AQS would probably only be able to provide partial services to CTV.
"The core idea of AQS is that if there is a company which works for more than one channel, it can structure its purchases in a way that limits the amount of unusable programs and increases the efficiency of acquisitions," Zach told Variety.
AQS' appearance reinforces a growing trend toward territorial buying in Central Europe's maturing markets. CME (majority owner in Nova) inaugurated its Programming Services division earlier this year, although its first big territorialwide deal with Warner Brothers has apparently fallen through, due to problems on both sides.
SBS, which owns two up-and-coming stations in the region, is also moving in that direction. And in the Baltic republics, Latvian channel LNT has hooked up with Estonia's Kanal 2 and Lithuania's LNK for regional rights, while Swedish-owned TV3 is now up and running in all three countries as well.
