Huge changes are happening in CEE’s satellite TV marketplace.
This week alone we have seen the Telekom Austria subsidiary Vipnet strengthen its position in Croatia by buying Digi TV’s interests. Having already acquired B.net, the country’s leading cable operator, it is now even more able to challenge the incumbent telco Hravtski Telekom, whose interests include one of the most successful IPTV operations in the region, in the provision of pay-TV services.
Meanwhile in Bulgaria, Telenor Satellite Broadcasting (TSBc) has entered into an agreement with the local telco Neterra, paving the way for the launch of a new DTH platform. It will compete with two existing operations – Bulsatcom and Vivacom TV – which though long established have failed to make a huge impression on the local pay-TV market.
In Poland, on the other hand, we have learnt that nC+, the long awaited platform formed as the result of the merger of Cyfra+ and n, will finally make its debut on March 21. It will compete in a market already served by Cyfrowy Polsat, which has almost 3.6 million subscribers, as opposed to its 2.6 million.
Although the Polish DTH market is now close to saturation, there is perhaps the outside chance that it could support another platform.
That is certainly not the case in the Czech Republic, which currently support no fewer than five DTH services, two of which – Skylink and CS Link – are operated by the M77 Group.
Speaking at this week’s Prague Business Breakfast, Jaromir Glisnik, the president of M77, said that he felt consolidation was needed in the Czech market.
Given Digi TV’s sale in Croatia, questions marks are now almost inevitably being asked about the future of RCS&RDS’s operations in other CEE markets, including, of course, the Czech Republic.
Given the level of activity we have seen in recent days, there are likely to be many more important developments in the satellite TV sector in Central and Eastern Europe over the next few months.
