The leading Ukrainian cable operator Volia has launched a ‘next generation’ television service, VOLIA Smart HD, running on both its own cable network and third-party broadband infrastructure.
The 1.5 million subscriber network currently covers 29 cities and is the Ukraine’s largest TV provider. It is also the second largest provider of broadband services, but will work with other networks in order to carry its services offnet.
Volia CEO Gyorgy Zsembery told Broadband TV News that the IPTV offer would mirror that of the cable service. “We had to adjust some of the packages. Content was a greater challenge and needed a phased approach.” Even so Volia has signed up Ukranian and international content providers among 130 channels that include YouTube (oft requested by subscribers), Oll.tv, MEGOGO.NET and Sony.
Content will include national and international football, such as the Premier League and Champions League, and the new Sony series Hannibal.
“In the cities we have the same model and where we are not present we will use third-party ISPs.” One such partner is Datagroup, the national Ukrainian telecommunication operator with 276,700 retail customers. “We want to connect our network to theirs and put a CDN into that network.”
Unusually for an operator in the region, Volia secured the services of Adzio as system integrator. The UK-based consultancy pulled in technical partners Minerva, Entone, Verimatrix, Anevia and Envivio.
Dr Arjang Zadeh, chief executive officer, explained that the technical parameters between DVB-C and IPTV were virtually identical with a hybrid EPG running across both services. “I haven’t seen any other operator that is running the same packages on and off net,” he said.
Adzio has worked with Volia for 18 months with the integration of VOLIA Smart HD taking place over a six-month period.
Typically standard definition services are running at between 800 kbps and 1 Mbps while the 15 HD channels are between 2.5Mbps and 4Mbps.
Although already capable, Volia is holding back some services such as catch-up, which will be introduced in a few months time.
Ukraine is still a relatively undeveloped TV market, with half of homes relying on terrestrial services, a third receiving cable and DTH take-up relatively small.
There is a lot of cable overbuild and Volia sees interactive TV, OTT and buying other cable operators as good strategies for growth.
According to Zsembery, the company will be introducing hybrid STBs in a month’s time and such additional services as multiscreen and different types of catchup-TV at the end of the summer.
It wants to lead the interactive transformation in Ukraine and is very careful about the total customer experience. As a result, it is partnering up with companies in order to have a robust ecosystem.
Content rights, rather than technical integration, present Volia with its biggest challenge.
Commenting on the future of the Ukrainian market, Zsembery said he expected to see more consolidation.
The market is currently fragmented, with over 300 cable operators and ISPs claiming a share of less than 1%.
