HCA/HCTA CONFERENCE – TIHANY. Digital TV services are now received in over 1 million Polish cable homes, according to Jerzy Straszewski, the president of the country’s Chamber of Electronic Communication (PIKE).
Speaking in an international session at the HCA/HCTA Hungarian cable conference in Tihany, he added that there are 9.09 million Polish pay-TV homes and 4.7 million receiving FTA services. This is also the first year in which cable, satellite and terrestrial TV effectively have an equal market share in Poland.
The number of cable subscribers stands at 4.6 million, while 690,000 access fixed telephony and 1,700,000 fixed internet via cable respectively, the latter being the fastest growing of cable services.
Straszewski added that Poland aims to have a 75% take-up of digital among cable subscribers in the next five years, exactly the same target as that announced for Europe as a whole by Manuel Kohnstamm, the president of Cable Europe, earlier this year at Cable Congress.
He also said that Aster, Poland’s fourth largest cable operator, is likely to be sold this year.
There has been talk about the sale of Aster, which is currently owned by Mid Europa Partners (MEP) for some time. Earlier this week an unconfirmed agency report in Warsaw said that two potential buyers had been approached by MEP.
