Eqal licenses Lonelygirl to Poland

The creators of the web series Lonelygirl15 and KateModern have teamed up with two Polish production companies to spin off a new online show called n1ckola.

Eqal, the social entertainment company founded by Lonelygirl creators Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried, has struck a licensing agreement with Poland's Agora and A2 Multimedia.

N1ckola will combine several genres, including reality, documentary and feature fiction. More than 100 episodes will be produced, with each episode running from one to five minutes.

The show will air four to five times each week, with the premiere episode debuting next Monday on the N1ckola.pl platform.

Through the licensing agreement, Agora will have rights to the Lonelygirl15 brand name, logo, plot and characters. Eqal will consult with Agora on the new story, character creation and development, scripts and storyline.

"We're thrilled to take the Lonelygirl15 franchise to Europe," said Goodfried. "The show's expansion into multiple international territories, including the UK, Italy and Poland represents the global excitement of online entertainment."

This latest deal follows the announcement last week of Eqal's new project with CBS for primetime mystery series Harper's Island. The company also recently revealed LG15: The Show Is Yours, a pilot submission scheme giving fans the chance to create the next series in the Lonelygirl franchise.

Source: By Martin Buxton ,c21media.net

Polish 09 deficit may top plan,neutral for rating-Fitch

Poland's general government deficit may rise to 2.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2009 but even a slightly higher gap would not impact the country's rating, a Fitch Ratings analyst said on Thursdays.

David Heslam also said Poland, rated by Fitch at A- with a stable outlook, may not be able to hold the 2009 budget gap at the budget-envisaged 18.2 billion zlotys as the economy slows sharply on the back of the global crisis.
We have a slightly wider government deficit than the government -- at 2.7 percent -- and the bias is on a higher deficit. This wouldn't put pressure on Poland's rating even if the deficit stood at 3 percent as government debt dynamics would not significantly worsen,' Heslam told Reuters.

Source: By Kuba Jaworowski, forbes.com

Poland approves higher electricity prices for 2009

Poland's energy regulator URE approved a last batch of electricity tariffs for 2009, raising distribution fees by 1.1 percent on the average, URE said in a statement.

It had previously approved a 10 percent rise in wholesale prices for 12 out of 14 energy trading companies.

"Taking inflation into account, the real cost of delivering energy will either remain flat or fall," URE said.

The end-user tariff is a combination of the wholesale price and the distribution fee charged by power companies.

Electricity distributors, including subsidiaries of Sweden's Vattenfall [VATN.UL] and Poland's only listed utility Enea ENEAa.WA, asked the regulator for price increases of some 40-60 percent.

Power plants in the European Union's largest ex-communist economy are nearly entirely dependent on coal and the electricity distributors backed their claims with rising coal prices and the cost of buying carbon dioxide permits.

The regulator had said the price rise in 2009 should not exceed 5 percent and will be the only electricity price increase this year.

Source:By Patryk Wasilewski, reuters.com

Frigoglass to cut jobs in Greece, Poland

Greek cooler maker Frigoglass (FRIr.AT) said on Tuesday it plans to cut its workforce in a domestic unit and close its Polish factory as part of a plant restructuring programme.

The world's largest maker of drink refrigeration equipment said it would reduce its workforce at its Kato Achaia plant by 120 employees, out of a total of 210 workers, through a voluntary redudancy scheme.

"The cost of the proposed severance package is estimated at 8.5 million euros, and will be recorded as an exceptional charge in Frigoglass' full year 2008 financial results," the company said in a statement.

"The voluntary redundancy scheme reaffirms the management's proactive approach towards production rationalization and will allow for a speedier margin recovery during 2010-2011", Piraeus Securities said in a morning note.

Frigoglass also said it was closing its plant in Poland in response to the rapidly deteriorating global economic climate.

The announcement follows a statement in October that the company would restructure its Polish plant. [ID:nLO116771]

Frigoglass shares were down 4.00 percent to 3.36 euros at 1000 GMT, compared to losses of 0.67 percent for the general index .ATG.
Source: By Tatiana Fragou, Simon Jessop, reuters.com