Digital TV in CEE – PRAGUE. Estonia’s Levira has played a key role in increasing the number of localised channels available in the country from 10 to 50 in the last five years.
In a wide-ranging presentation about the transmission company, which is backed by the Estonian state and TDF, Indrek Lepp, director, division of media services, said that it had made the decision to expand to markets outside the Baltics and Scandinavia last autumn.
It is now at the first stage of establishing a presence in the CEE region.
Commenting on the Estonian market, Lepp said that although pay-TV penetration in the country stood at 85%, DTH penetration was only 5%, compared to 15% in both Latvia and Lithuania.
He added that the cost of distributing a SD channel on its fibre network in Estonia amounted to €15,000 a year.
This compared to €25,000 in Finland, €30,000 in Sweden and €40,000 in Latvia and Lithuania.
