Launch of the international version of RiC Channel over Central and Eastern Europe in cooperation with A1 Telekom Austria Group

Well-known family channel RiC has launched an international version in English and German across the Central and Eastern Europe region with A1 Telekom Austria Group as a strong partner to strategically further develop RiC´s footprint.

As of now pay-TV operators across Eastern-Europe and beyond will be able to add RiC continually to their TV-bouquet. The channel is carried over A1 Telekom Austria Group´s direct2home technical platform on Eutelsat 16A, the leading broadcast position for Central and Eastern Europe, with extensive coverage of the CEE region.

RiC the Raven is not only an iconic animated series but also the broadcaster’s hilarious mascot connecting with a broad international audience. The start of RiC´s international version is a natural evolution following the RiC launch 2012 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (link to coverage or RiC on website) (as the only independent European German language family channel) and the successful start of its sister channel RiK 2015 in Slovakia (as the first channel for families in Slovak language worldwide).

The international version of RiC offers award-winning English and German series to the whole family, both entertaining and educational. The high-quality English dialogues have been carefully developed in collaboration with pedagogues over several years - most of its classic stories are based on popular children´s books and novels. RiC content strengthens the English language fluency of the kids, encourage creativity and convey important social values - this is an important aspect that kids do not necessarily learn at school. This way RiC provides a healthy balance of entertainment and learning or we can summarize it as “learning by laughing”!

“It was time to make our beloved RiC Channel available for an international audience – nowadays the English language is more important than ever! Thanks to the new RiC channel kids and families can enjoy our wonderful stories in English, while improving their vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation at the same time. In addition RiC promotes family togetherness and transgenerational viewing,” says Laurence Robinet, Chief Broadcast Officer of YFE AG.

"We are very happy to move Ric to the next level with A1 Telekom Austria Group, who have been extremely supportive from the very beginning of our cooperation,” comments Bernhard Stephan, CCO of YFE AG.

“We are very excited to have this long-term partnership with Your Family Entertainment AG (YFE). It allows us to distribute and offer the excellent content of RiC International that will inform, educate and entertain the audience in Europe. We are pleased to provide safe and secure technical delivery of the channel via A1 Telekom Austria Group´s direct2home platform to all pay-TV operators within the Europe-wide coverage of Eutelsat 16A,” adds Elena Petrova, Head of Global Sales, Broadcasting, A1 Telekom Austria Group.

About Your Family Entertainment AG
Your Family Entertainment AG (WKN [German security code number]: A161N1, ISIN: DE000A161N14, Abbreviation: RTV) with its headquarter in Munich, was one founder of the first German private broadcaster, Sat.1, in 1984, contributed to the development of children's morning programming on Super RTL and is one of the founding members of Association of Private Broadcasters and Telemedia (VPRT). In addition, YFE is the producer and license distributor for high-quality programs for children and the whole family and has one of the largest broadcaster-independent program libraries in Europe. Its stock of programs includes well-known and beloved series such as "Enid Blyton", "Fix & Foxi" and "Altair". Since 2007, YFE operates the award-winning your family Pay TV children's channel which is named „Fix&Foxi“ since December 2014 and has established itself worldwide. The channels are available as well in GAS-Region (German) as in Africa, Middle East (Arabic and English) and America (Spanish and English). RiC commenced broadcasting operations as a Free TV channel in September 2012 with a current coverage of 34 Mio. households in the GAS region. In addition, YFE operates 20 mobile TV broadcasters on the Hutchison 3 TV platform. YFE is headed by Dr. Stefan Piëch.