Eastern Europe Move By Poker Channel

Poker for Poland in new deal The Poker Channel, Europe's largest dedicated gaming TV network, made its first significant move into Eastern Europe this week through a distribution agreement with the Vectra Group, the second largest cable operator in Poland. Launching a promotional campaign to all Vectra's digital basic subscribers on Friday 30th January, this is the first carriage agreement for The Poker Channel in Eastern Europe, and marks the continued rise in popularity of the game in the region. With the new agreement, The Poker Channel is now available to 16 million cable and satellite homes in 17 European markets. The new agreement follows this month's announcement by Gaming Media Group, parent company to The Poker Channel, of its results for the year ended 31st October 2008. The group doubled its TV advertising revenues, and achieved a 57 percent increase in revenues overall taking into account casino, bingo and TV advertising. Profit before tax has grown by four times to GBP 1 million. Programming highlights for the Polish launch include the PokerHeaven European Cash Game, a high stakes cash game featuring celebrated poker pros such as World Series of Poker winner, Peter Eastgate; the Cash Game Master Class, the first ever 'how to' series for cash game poker; the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour. Chris White, Commercial Director at The Poker Channel said "Our expansion in to Eastern Europe further illustrates the growing demand for poker and gaming on TV. We are delighted to partner with Vectra Group and look forward to delivering quality programming to its thousands of customers." Malgorzata Wojtaszko, TV Product Manager, Vectra Group said "As the game's popularity continues to grow, we're delighted to be the first platform in Poland to launch The Poker Channel, and offer subscribers of our new sports package the very best poker action from around the world"