2011 was an eventful year for the TV industry in Central and Eastern Europe.
Consolidation was arguably most evident in Poland, where following months of wrangling Liberty Global finally managed to secure approval to buy Aster, the country’s fourth largest cable operator. Now that Aster’s assets have been combined with UPC Polska’s, Liberty Global is the undisputed market leader, with twice as many subscribers as both Vectra and Multimedia Polska.
Meanwhile in the DTH sector, the acquisition of a stake in TVN by Canal+ pointed to an eventual merger between Cyfra+ and platform n. At the same time, Zygmunt Solorz-Zak, whose interests include the leading DTH platform Cyfrowy Polsat, gained a strong foothold in the telco sector by acquiring Polkomtel in a deal worth over €4.5 billion.
Major consolidation was also seen in the Czech Republic, where Skylink and CS Link, the country’s two largest DTH platforms, found themselves with the same owner. However, Luxembourg-based M77 Group at present has no intention to merge the two operations, preferring instead to keep them as distinct services.
Late in the year, the Czech Republic also joined a growing list of countries in the region that had completed the transition to digital broadcasting. They include Croatia, which managed the process in only 10 months in 2010.
Croatia also saw a major deal in 2011, with Telekom Austria acquiring B.net, the leading cable operator, through its local subsidiary Vipnet. At the same time, it remained one of the region’s leading IPTV markets, thanks largely to the success of the Hrvatski Telekom operation MAXtv.
The take-up of pay-TV services grew strongly throughout CEE in 2011, and in Russia the leading DTH platform Tricolor TV was expected to the end the year with 10 million subscribers.
HD channels were well established in the region in 2011, while 3D content was being offered on a regular basis in a number of countries including Russia (NTV-Plus) and Poland (Cyfra+). Along with high-speed internet access, take-up of on demand services also grew strongly.
Despite the difficult economic climate, many positive trends seen in the region’s TV industry in 2011 are likely to continue next year.
