The Bulgarian DTH platform Satellite BG has run into serious difficulties, with its owners facing the threat of bankruptcy.
Capital reports that the service is no longer accepting new customers and its subscriber total has fallen to only around a tenth of the 50,000 it stood at a few years ago.
Satellite BG has had a chequered history, starting off life as ITV Partner before being renamed Total TV and more recently Satellite BG.
In each instance it had a different owners, with the most high profile being Mid Europa Partners (MEP), which bought ITV Partner in 2009.
MEP had ambitious plans for the platform, intending to invest €45 million and double its market share from 15% to 30%, but these never materialised.
Eventually it was sold on to the local entrepreneurs Ljubomir Pavlov and Rumen Atarski, who were behind the station TV7.
There then followed an agreement with Mobiltel, making the service available to the latter’s customers in 11 Bulgarian cities.
However, this quickly folded and Satellite BG now finds itself in financial difficulties.
Its main creditor is UniCredit Bulbank and even a sale may not be able to pay off all the platform’s debts.
Satellite BG is distributed from the 23.5 degrees East position and operates in a DTH market also served by Vivacom and Bulsatcom.
This will shortly be joined by a new platform operated by Telenor Satellite Broadcasting (TSBc) and Neterra.
