History
Luxe.TV was started by Jean Stock and his son Jean-Baptiste in June 2006. Jean Stock is known in the media industry as co-founder of French leading private channel M6, his early work with RTL Radio and RTL Télé Luxembourg, his position as general secretary of the European Broadcasting Union and his time as Chairman and CEO of international French-speaking channel TV5MONDE. Luxe.TV HD was one the first HD channels in Europe, Middle East and Asia.
Sergey Pugachyov's OPK Luxadvor S.A. holding company acquired a 72% controlling stake in the channel from its founders in April 2009. The remainder of the company was held by European media industry personalities including Jean Stock and Charles Ruppert. On 24 September 2010, Jean Stock resigned as president of DVL.TV, while remaining as a member of the board of directors.
In early August 2010, twenty-four of the thirty-seven employees of the TV station had been fired and all production activities had been stopped. OGBL, the Luxembourg Confederation of Independent Trade Unions, was told that the business model didn’t work out.
In mid-October 2010, Jean Stock asked the Luxembourg Commercial Court to declare DVL.TV S.A. bankrupt after rejecting a proposed rescheduling of €2.6 million of a €3.25 million loan owed to him by DVL.TV following the takeover by Pugachyov, investors stood to loose €30 million. On 20 October, DVL.TV was declared bankrupt in the Luxembourg Commercial Court, with provisionally estimated liabilities of €4.3 million and all of the remaining staff released. At the same time the channel was rebranded as Luxury Life in some regions. Sergey Pugachyov could not assume the burden of debt.
On 29 October 2010, Jean Stock was chosen by the Luxembourg Insolvency Administrator in charge of the winding-up process of DVL.TV, as the exclusive party to become the new owner of the network, after submitting the highest bid. On 1 November 2010, Stock took control of the broadcaster. Stock decided to continue operations under the original name of Luxe.TV. On 15 November 2010, authorization for the sale to Stock's Opuntia S.A. was granted by the District Court of Luxembourg, Opuntia now own assets including the name and the entire Luxe.TV library of programming.
Opuntia S.A. soon put in place a new management structure, with Paul-René Heinerscheid as Managing Director and attracted a major outside investor, the Crédit Mutuel-CIC bank. The company turned Luxe.TV into a pay-TV channel, and concluded major new distribution agreements in Europe and Asia. It moved its facilities from the city of Luxembourg to a new location outside in Bascharage in late June 2011.
It is commercially represented by Thema TV in Asia and Russia, and by Lagardère Active in several European markets.
As of July 2011, Luxe.TV is available in 107 countries in the world. 92 millions homes have a direct access to the channel (6 millions in France, 1,8 millions in South Korea and 1,3 millions in Portugal). It is distributed by fiber optics, many cable operators in Europe, Middle East and Asia, DTTV channel 7 in Luxembourg and by satellite on Eutelsat’s EB-9A (Ku-band), on Arabsat Badr-6 (Ku-band), and on AsiaSat 5 (C-band).
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