Although IPTV has been slow to take off in Hungary, with the total number of subscribers estimated at between 60-70,000, there are signs that the industry has finally turned a corner.
According to VG, there are at present four companies providing IPTV services in the country – Magyar Telekom, Invitel, GTS-Datanet and Interware – of which only the first two have their own infrastructure.
However, Magyar Telekom gained more subscribers in H1 2009 than in the previous year and a half. Some 120,000 homes are already reached by its fibre-optic network, with the number set to rise by 45,000 by the end of the year.
GTS-Datanet meanwhile only launched its service in July. It has a total of 40,000 residential for its telco services subscribers, of whom 15,000 are technically equipped to receive IPTV. It aims to secure 10% of the latter as paying IPTV customers.