Time Warner- backed CME was never a company to be deterred by adverse market conditions.
In the nearly two decades it has operated in Central and Eastern Europe, the pan-regional broadcaster has seen its fair share of peaks and troughs and in one instance – Studio 1+1 in Ukraine – even decided to exit a territory.
Now, however – and despite a challenging first half year financially – it is making significant progress on a number of fronts and can look forward to the future with a good deal of confidence.
Take its subscription on demand service Voyo, for instance. Launched in the Czech Republic at the beginning of last year and subsequently rolled out to CME’s five other markets in the region, it already had 78,000 customers as of the end of June. Furthermore, following an agreement with UPC, it has since this month also been offered to the latter’s subscribers in Romania.
Voyo is also available on iPads in both Romania and the Czech Republic and can, in addition, be received on Panasonic connected TVs.
Speaking about its future plans for Voyo in a company newsletter, Anthony Chhoy, executive VP, strategic planning and operations, said that the service would expand its content library and distribution means in order to rapidly grow subscriptions.
Chhoy also said that CME plans to launch subscription and pay-TV channels to further expand its subscription TV revenues.
Robert Berza, head of new media, meanwhile said that Voyo would shortly be available on most well known TV brands, as well as most popular tablets and smartphones.
Voyo also now has a sister service – Oyo Cinema, offering movies round-the-clock – which is available in Croatia, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Two other channels – Fanda (Czech Republic) and TV Dajto (Slovakia), both of which target male viewers – have also recently been launched by CME, while its subsidiary MediaPro Entertainment continues, in Chhoy’s view, to prove the validity of the “One Content, Multiple Distribution” business model.
All in all, these are fascinating times for one of the region’s longest-established players and its future looks increasingly promising.
