PIKE Conference – Ossa. Polish cable operators are either unable or unwilling to offer their subscribers SVOD services.
Speaking in a session entitled Broadcasters and operators – mutual relationships in the digitalisation process, HBO Polska president Aleksander Kutela said he was surprised its SVOD service, launched a year ago, was still not offered by any cable operator in Poland. Indeed, the first platform to take it up was Cyfra+.
Although Kutela saw this as a missed opportunity for cable operators as they could have raised ARPU and subscriber numbers, UPC’s Jaroslaw Pijanowski said that to offer SVOD would cost “tens of millions of zlotys” to rebuild networks.
Olgierd Dobrzynski from TVN meanwhile added that the DTH platform n has offered VOD (as opposed to SVOD) from its launch, with the service now being accessible to around 600,000 subscribers.
Around 100,000 Cyfrowy Polsat and Cyfra+ also currently have access to VOD.