In an exclusive interview Berk Uziyel, Executive Director of FilmBox International, tells CEETV’s Georgi R. Chakarov how his company is expanding its business in the CEE and the rest of the world with key investments in 4K.


CEETV: Mr. Uziyel, SPI International has been a leading supplier of movies and TV programs for over twenty years. You also operate more than 30 FilmBox brand channels, you have a VoD library, and own Stopklatka.pl. Is it hard to operate on multiple fronts like content distribution, operations of channels, digital and what is the core of your business?

BU: For many years our core business focused on distribution of movies and TV content to major TV networks in Central and Eastern Europe. We also specialized in theatrical movie releases in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. While this segment is still an important part of our business, we have become a global broadcasting company which offers a wide range of Pay-TV channels all over the world. In addition to FilmBox movie channels currently distributed in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey, our portfolio also includes two sports channels – FightBox and FastnFunBox, a documentary channel – DocuBox, a fashion channel – FashionBox, a music channel – 360TuneBox, MadscreenBox with live interactive games as well as two adult channels – Erox and Eroxxx. Moreover, we developed a number of apps under the FilmBox Live brand to make our channels and the related VOD content available on any Internet-connected device.

CEETV: During MIPTV you announced the launch of your first Ultra HD channel 4K FunBox UHD, saying that 4K content is one of your major priorities for the upcoming years. What other priorities you have set and what kind of 4K content you are planning to produce/acquire?

BU: Making 4K content available to TV viewers is in fact one of our top priorities. 4K FunBox UHD will be the first channel in our portfolio to offer programming in Ultra HD quality. We plan to develop more 4K channels in the future. While acquiring more Ultra HD content we also began to produce our own content. We started with recording live MMA events in native 4K but eventually we want to produce Ultra HD programming covering music and other types of entertainment.

CEETV: Have you planned the launch of new channels in Europe? Or perhaps acquire already operating channels?

BU: At this point we are localizing our existing English-language channels in order to offer more local feeds in the countries where we already operate, namely in Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Bulgaria and in the Adria region. We are launching a number of FilmBox movie channels in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Albania and Macedonia. Our goal is to create a wide portfolio of localized thematic channels offering sports, lifestyle, music and interactive family programming so that local viewers can enjoy top quality entertainment content in their language.

CEETV: What is your digital strategy? Will you add more services like Stopklatka in other countries as well?

BU: Our digital strategy is focused on our flagship VOD service FilmBox Live which offers access to both our linear channels and our content library on multiple screens. The service is available all over the world in the form of apps developed for Smart TV platforms, mobile networks and game consoles. Recently we launched an online VOD/Pay-Per-View service www.fightboxlive.com so that fans of martial arts sports can enjoy live broadcast of MMA and kickboxing events. In many cases FilmBox Live is a complimentary service which we make available to the subscribers of our FilmBox premium TV packages. Our strategy is to create FilmBox Universe, an interactive, multi-screen environment where the subscriber can enjoy linear TV channels, a huge VoD library as well as interactive gaming content along with 4K programming on their TV screens and anytime, anywhere on any internet-connected device.

CEETV: Give us details about your Kino LG 4K project in Poland? Have you planned to launch it in other countries as well?

BU: “Kino LG 4K” in Poland is a pilot project. We developed a unique service boasting a library of 30 movies which can be streamed in Ultra HD quality via FilmBox Live app on all 2014 LG Smart TV 4K models. We hope to extend our collaboration with LG onto other markets.

“Kino LG 4k” features such hits as Asterix and Obelix God Save Britannia, Sammy’s Adventures: The Secret Passage, Magic Mike, Blitz and Carnage among many others. ULTRA HD versions of the movies presented in the LG 4k library have been engineered by CRF, an SPI-owned technology company specializing in digital remastering and preservation of movies.

While developing the 4k project for LG we came up with the technology applied which allows home subscribers to stream 4K content from the FilmBox Live VoD service using broadband Internet and mobile networks.

This super-efficient compression technology has been thoroughly tested on several platforms and already approved by manufacturers of devices supporting 4K streaming over the Internet. SPI International is currently one of the few companies, which make 4k quality streaming available to any operator on any 4K supported device.

CEETV: You own Kino Polska TV which you plan to become the leading player in the CEE market. Tell us more about the company's strategy in the region?

BU: Kino Polska TV is the largest company in the SPI International Group. It is also our operation hub employing close to 200 people in such areas as broadcasting, programming, editing, licensing, marketing, accounting and post-production. Thanks to the technological and human resources gathered in Warsaw we are able to run and grow our business not only across the CEE but also globally.

CEETV: You work with major international producers and distributors, you announced a deal with NBVUniversal during MIPTV. Have you planned joint projects with local CEE producers?

BU: We already cooperate with several producers of MMA and kickboxing events in the region in order to offer our viewers live broadcast of major sporting galas held in Poland, Lithuania, Moldova and other countries.

CEETV: Last month you announced the launch of four of your channels in Indonesia. What other territories will you expand to in the upcoming months? Are you eyeing other Asian markets? What about other continents?

The launch of FilmBox channels in Indonesia is a major step for us as we plan to continue expanding the distribution of our channels in Asia. We are also planning to introduce our channels in Israel. Only this month we launched eight channels on Crystal TV in Ghana and we are close to sign new distribution agreements in other African markets. At the same time we are working on bringing our channels to South America. We recently secured a formal approval from Ancine, the Brazilian regulatory body, to launch nine FilmBox brand channels in the country’s pay TV market.