Viasat and BBC Worldwide have scored major successes this week in Central and Eastern Europe.
At the same time, the dispute between Discovery and RCS&RDS in Romania appears to be more serious than previously thought and shows no sign of ending.
Viasat has been an ever present in the region for many years and is particularly well established in the Baltic Republics and Russia. Its latest deal, with NBCUniversal International Television Distribution for pay-TV rights for Russia, Ukraine and CIS, marks the latest such agreement with a Hollywood major. It has been followed by the launch of a premium SVOD service on Viaplay in Russia that includes content from four majors, including NBCUniversal International Television Distribution.
Alongside this Viasat has also launched its first complete pay-TV package, on Rostelecom and again in Russia.
BBC Worldwide can meanwhile point to the agreement it has just struck with RCS&RDS for the distribution of BBC Knowledge in Romania and Hungary from the beginning of next year. The deal includes BBC Entertainment, which appeared on RCS&RDS’s networks in both countries at the beginning of December, and is undoubtedly a major advance for the broadcaster in the Balkans.
Unfortunately, though through no fault of its own, it is directly linked to the dispute between RCS&RDS and Discovery in that the channels have replaced two of the latter’s that were so controversially withdrawn from RCS&RDS’s programme schedule towards the end of last month.
Both have now made their positions quite clear, with RCS&RDS accusing Discovery of charging too much for its channels – there were a total of six involved – and Discovery, in turn, saying that RCS&RDS did not negotiate in good faith and in fact had planned the withdrawal of its services and their replacement with comparable ones, including the BBC Worldwide channels, a number of months ago.
Significantly, Romania’s National Audiovisual Council (CNA) is now trying to put an end to the dispute.
