Much has happened in CEE’s TV industry since Broadband TV News, in association with Telenor Satellite Broadcasting, held its first Business Breakfast in Prague in November 2007.
Having subsequently organised successful events in Budapest, Bucharest and Belgrade last year, we will be returning to Prague on May 19 to see at first hand the state of play in one of the region’s most progressive markets.
The Czech Republic has in the past 18 months made huge strides in the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting. In the satellite sector, the pre-pay platform Skylink, which is also present in neighbouring Slovakia, has become the dominant player, claiming a combined total of over 600,000 customers in the two countries. At the same time, its competitors UPC Direct and Digi TV have also continued to grow, though at a slower pace.
Meanwhile in the cable market, the leading player UPC has enjoyed huge success with its digital TV operation: it already had 334,600 subscribers as of the end of the first quarter, or almost as many as that of its sister services in Hungary, Romania and Poland combined.
IPTV, too, has been a resounding success, with the market leader Telefónica O2’s platform O2 TV starting to see significant growth in take-up in recent months. Indeed, its Q1 2009 subscriber total stood at 128,000, or 46.6% more than a year earlier.
DTT is now also a reality in the Czech Republic, with ASO being undertaken on a region-by-region basis and Prague the latest (as of the beginning of this month) to go digital.
All this and much more will be discussed at the Prague Business Breakfast. The speaker line-up for the event includes Petr Dvorak (CEO, TV Nova), Zdenek Duspiva (Chairman, National Coordination Group for Digital Broadcasting), Jaromir Glisnik (MD, TradeTec – Skylink) and Petr Kacafirek (CATV Product Manager, UPC Ceska Republika).
The event will be held on Tuesday, May 19 at Room Bohemia 1, Prague Marriott Hotel, V celnici 8, 11000 Prague 1. Entrance will be free, and to register readers should simply Click Here.
