These are eventful times for the DTH market in Romania.
Not that long ago, it was held up as an example of one that was ripe for consolidation, playing host to no fewer than five platforms. Then, the incumbent telco Romtelecom, which was itself operating a successful service named Dolce TV, snapped up two others – AKTA Satelit DTH and Boom TV – in quick succession in 2011.
This left the market only served by three platforms – Dolce TV, along with RCS&RDS’ Digi TV and UPC’s Focus Sat – with the UPC operation a distant third to the other two in terms of subscriber numbers despite being the best performing UPC DTH platform, again in terms of take-up, in the CEE region.
However, after only two years this has suddenly changed. On Thursday, May 29, we reported on the launch of a new platform named Freesat. Not to be confused with UPC DTH’s service in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, it takes its name after its operator Freesat, a company based in the city of Oradea, and is a pre-pay service targeting the lower end of the market. Its offer of 20-odd channels for an affordable RON99 (€22.8) a year is likely to appeal to viewers away from the big towns and cities, largely served by cable, who are for one reason or another dissatisfied with what Dolce TV, Digi TV and Focus Sat currently provide.
Freesat’s launch is also something of a coup for Eutelsat, giving that it is using the 16 degrees East neighbourhood. It will, in addition, help in Romania’s transition to digital broadcasting, giving viewers access to more channels at an affordable price.
The market will soon also see the launch of another platform targeting the higher end of the market. Operated by Orange, we already know that it will carry up to 99 channels, 29 of which will be in HD, and aim to have around 50,000 subscribers.
Although further details are sketchy, it has just been reported that more information, including a planned launch date, will be made available to the press on June 11.
This sudden surge of activity is not likely to be confined to Romania, with more DTH platforms likely to launch in some other CEE markets in the near future.
