Minivision AB was a pan-European media consortium based in Stockholm, Sweden and founded by businessman Nils Arvid Gustavsson in 1991, with the aim of creating a television network (which would eventually be named MiniChannel) to broadcast Magic World's programs initially in the Nordic countries and later on in Central and Eastern Europe.
Though the consortium experienced considerable revenue and overall success throughout the remainder of the 1990's well into the 2000's, financial issues and the declining popularity of MinIChannel and its content in favor of other kid-oriented channels in the regions resulted in the venture shuttering by 2008.
History[]
Beginning[]
Joseph Haddad met co-founder Nils Arvid Gustavsson, then owner of a brick-and-mortar electronics shop in Stockholm, when he took in a malfunctioning portable AM/FM radio in for repairs. Upon explaining to Gustavsson that he was trying to negotiate for his studio's programs to receive better exposure in the Nordic region, the shopkeeper replied that he had connections with workers in the telecommunications industry who could assist.
During much of 1991, Minivision AB was founded as a consortium to fund a free-to-air satellite television channel in the region. Whilst shopping around the premise to interested buyers, commercial broadcaster Stöð 2, publisher Egmont, British public broadcasters BBC and Granada Television, and telecommunications companies Telenor (then Televerket), Nokia and Televerket and later Warner Bros. joined as members.
The channel was planned to launch sometime in 1992 (under the altered name MiniVision) but was ultimately delayed to the following year due to issues such as finding programs to purchase and a satellite available for transmissions. Nevertheless, Minivision managed to secure rights to various programs to make up its schedule and forge an agreement with British Sky Broadcasting to transmit the signal and feeds via via Marcopolo 1 of the Thor satellite family, all in time for a stone-set launch date of October 1993.
Initial success[]
MiniVision had successfully launched in the Nordic region on October 10, 1993 with an 11-hour schedule from 7 AM to 6 PM and timesharing with a Nordic feed of Home Shopping Network until 10 PM (when daily transmissions would then cease until the following morning).
As the channel grew in popularity with a young audience across the region, Bergsala (Nordic distributor of Nintendo products) and Skífan (an Icelandic record label) were invited and successfully incorporated as members in mid-1994. This helped provide the channel with further profit opportunities such as promoting Nintendo via television programs and Skífan publishing music albums based on the channel to Icelandic people.
This surprise success prompted Gustavsson and Haddad to discuss the possibility of expanding the network's outreach to other parts of Europe and begin negotiations with companies in these regions to try and forge deals.
Unfortunately, they were unable to finalize deals for entering the Benelux, Iberian and Mediterranean regions (for a number of reasons) but were able to find potential for audience viewership in Central and Eastern Europe.
Entry into further lands[]
The logo for the consortium displaying those of its members (circa 1999).
By the end of 1995, negotiations to launch the channel in Central & Eastern Europe showed promise, with Polish media company Polsat entering the consortium to aid in the establishment of a Polish-language feed.
Concurrent with the launch in these regions, the channel was renamed MiniChannel in the spring of 1996. In addition, the Nordic feed of Home Shopping Network was replaced with one for Warner Channel (an offshoot of Warner Bros.' pay TV channel from Latin America), with which it timeshared until 11 PM (extending broadcasts by one hour).
|
This article/section is under construction. |
| Please excuse its informal appearance while it is being worked on. We hope to have it completed as soon as possible. As usual, do not edit this page without the owner's permission unless you are correcting spelling and/or grammatical errors. |