German cable operator KabelBW, active in the state of Baden-Wuertenberg, has launched a new marketing campaign to lure viewers away from satellite. Perfectly timed at the launch of the controversial Entavio platform by SES-Astra, the operator offers new subscribers six months free subscription and a waiving of the one-time entry fee. “For satellite viewers we [...]
Volia improves digital offer
August 31, 2007 06.02 Europe/London By
The Ukrainian MSO Volia Cable has announced that it has added 10 new channels to its digital offer, bringing the total to 114. They include Entertainment Park, Wedding TV, Menu TV, Absolutely Secret and Mother and Child. Volia Cable is the largest cable operator in Ukraine. Its HFC network covers 950,000 homes and businesses in [...]
PrimaCom reports modest growth in H1
August 30, 2007 18.59 Europe/London By
During the first half year of 2007 German cable operator PrimaCom AG increased its turnover from €57.9 million to €58.1 million compared with the same period last year. This is the first time that the loss of analogue customers has been compensated by higher income from other products. The best performing product is broadband Internet [...]
Germany: DTT surpasses digital cable
August 30, 2007 14.34 Europe/London By
MEDIENWOCHE – BERLIN. The proportion of German digital households has now risen to 40% as compared with 31.6% a year ago, according to Dr Oliver Ecke of research institute TNS Infratest, speaking during the Digital TV 2007 session at the Medienwoche. However, the development on the various platforms is taking place at varying speeds. DTT [...]
Subtitles vanish from Finnish cable
August 30, 2007 10.13 Europe/London By
Subtitles on channels operated by the Finnish public broadcaster YLE have disappeared from cable networks. Operators still transmitting analogue signals have been experiencing problems in downconverting YLE’s digital signals to the analogue format. According to YLE, most of the problems concern networks in Tampere, Lappeenranta and Rovaniemi. YLE has admitted that its subtitling system is [...]
Orbit flies over the Atlantic to Europe
August 29, 2007 19.07 Europe/London By
The Middle-Eastern premium DTH operator Orbit has teamed up with Eutelsat’s German visAvision subsidiary for distribution of three of its Arabic premium channels on the Eutelsat KabelKiosk platform. By doing so, it has provided an easy way for European cable operators to offer Arabic channels, which are already available in Europe to satellite subscribers, on [...]
550,000 digital TV homes for Unitymedia
August 29, 2007 08.26 Europe/London By
Unitymedia, the cable operator in Hesse and Nordrhine-Westfalia, has said it has reached 550,000 digital TV homes, a fivefold increase since 2006. The company also has 200,00 broadband customers and 120,000 VoiP homes. Of the new broadband customers 80% take the full triple play subscription, which starts at €30 monthly for basic digital TV, 6 [...]
Teleset launches cable service
August 28, 2007 10.52 Europe/London By
The Russian telco Teleset has launched a cable service on its fibre-optic network in the city of Kazan. Offering around 40 channels for $5 (€3.66) a month, compared to the average $5.80 a month charged by such competitors as TVT and Divan-TV, it will be offered to all of Teleset’s existing 104,250 telephony subscribers, as [...]
Berkett applies for Virgin Media job
August 27, 2007 11.10 Europe/London By
Virgin Media’s acting CEO Neil Berkett has said he is treating his time in charge of the cablenet as if he were already in post. In an interview with the Financial Times Berkett said he intends to appoint “a couple of new people” into senior roles – including his own former post of chief operating [...]
Vectra reveals digital plans
August 27, 2007 09.58 Europe/London By
Speaking to the local press, Tomasz Zuranski, the president of Poland’s second largest MSO Vectra, has said that it plans to spend PLN120 million (€31.5 million) on the further roll out of its digital TV service. The service currently has 70,000 subscribers, with the figure expected to rise to 120,000, following its introduction in at [...]
