Brace yourselves for some major announcements affecting the pay-TV markets in Poland and Romania.
Buried deep amongst all the mostly first quarter results and new channel launch stories coming out of Poland in the last few days was one relating to the sale of Aster, the country’s fourth largest cable operator, to Liberty Global. Although the deal, worth €217.6 million plus debts of around €382.1 million, was announced as far back as last December, it has since effectively been on hold whilst the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) considers its implications for the market.
Now we have learnt that a final decision will be announced by the end of this month, if not sooner. The likelihood is that the sale will be given the go-ahead, thereby raising Liberty Global’s UPC Polska subscriber total by a further 400,000 to 1.4 million, or almost twice that of its nearest cable competitor, Vectra.
On the other hand, should it be blocked, Liberty Global will have suffered a major set back in what is its main market in the CEE region.
Meanwhile in Romania, there is a growing feeling that Liberty Global will indeed sell its cable operation UPC Romania – though not necessarily DTH platform Focus Sat – in the near future. RCS&RDS remain in pole position to buy it, though it would of course be foolish to rule out any other party.
RCS&RDS have also set their sights on Romtelecom, taking observers by surprise by bidding for the stake in the telco currently held by the state. However, the state is in negotiations with Deutsche Telekom-backed OTE, the other shareholder in Romtelecom, and has indicated it would rather have the company listed than sold to another party should the talks fail.
All is likely to become much clearer, both in Poland and Romania, following those major announcements.
