Spanish pay-DTT project Dahlia TV is to withdraw from the market due to operational difficulties.
It has emerged that the decision was taken as long ago as September 15 last year amid concern over delays to the introduction of pay-TV on the terrestrial system and the arrival of Mediapro’s Gol TV. €150 million of investment had been set aside by Dahlia’s Swedish owners Airplus TV.
Dahlia was proposing a mini-pay package costing between €8 and €12 per month, and capitalising on the success that Airplus has enjoyed in Finland and latterly Italy, where the company acquired Telecom Italia’s La7 Cartapiù.
The deployment of pay-TV on the terrestrial platform in Spain has been laboured. Although Gol TV is hailed as a success only 150,000 of the premium channel’s subscriber base relates to DTT.