Film Europe Media Company (www.filmeurope.eu) founder and CEO Ivan Hronec stressed the unique quality of the channel, which will broadcast up to 500 films annually from nearly 50 European countries. "It sounds unbelievable, but you won't find a television channel that provides a balanced presentation of European films from all the countries of Europe anywhere else," he said. "We will offer viewers film productions not only from the traditionally strong countries like Great Britain, France, Italy, Poland and Russia, but also from smaller countries, such as Portugal, Denmark, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Austria and even Lichtenstein, the latter being the co-producer of the film Paris je t'aime, which we aired symbolically yesterday as the very first film on our programming schedule."

Films will be broadcast in original versions with subtitles, and with no commercial breaks. The pay-TV channel is available on satellite and IPTV, with plans to expand it to other territories.

"Film Europe Channel is a private undertaking. We are building it without contributions from national ministries of culture or Brussels. We want to show that the project has a strong commercial foundation and only then will we take on partners. This is the path that culture today must take - responsible projects that have a healthy financial approach while at the same time bringing cultural and artistic value to audiences," Hronec said.

Film Europe Medai Company has offices in Prague, Bratislava, Budapest, London and Cannes. It operates three national thematic television channels: KINO CS, DOKU CS and MUZIKA CS (CS Channels). Film Europe buys and co-produces European films for cinemas and distribution on DVD and VOD, as well as TV broadcast.