Broadband TV News speaks with Martin Ornass-Kubacki – VP and chief regional officer of SES in CEE, about the new Orange TV platform in Romania.
Orange Romania launched Orange TV on June 11, using multiple transponders on Astra satellites at the 31.5 degrees East position, in a market already served by four other DTH platforms and in which pay-TV penetration stands at over 85%. Furthermore, Romania’s TV distribution market is estimated to be worth around €370 million a year, and after falling in 2011 the number of DTH subscribers rose last year by 2% to 2.19 million in 2012.
The Orange TV platform has, very much as expected, a unique and quite specific offer. According to Ornass-Kubacki, who is also one of SES’s main architects of the Orange TV project, “Orange TV is bringing into the local market the largest number of HD channels – over 40 – while 26 of them are not available from other DTH operators. This is the best HD offer available at the moment in the CEE region. And with 80% of the 35 million satellite homes that are watching HD in Europe served by the European SES satellites, we can say that SES expertise in the matter only adds to the advantages.
“The brand, professionalism and the quality of the service are other important differentiator elements for Orange in this highly competitive market.”
Moreover, added Ornass-Kubacki, the Orange offer is not only very well-shaped and attractive in terms of its programming proposition, but it is also price balanced. It consists of three types of subscriptions, depending on customer preferences, from €5 to €12 a month. Orange customers benefit from a 20% discount if they have only one SIM and a 30% discount if they are using two SIM cards. They also benefit from free installation and activation of the service.
The multiscreen strategy makes the service initially available on PCs and TVs, though starting this autumn the company will also launch dedicated applications for smartphones and tablets. All this makes for the whole concept being more “customer friendly”.
The potential of the Romanian market can be deduced from the fact that, although Romania is not the first country where Orange has a launched TV service, it is the first one that is integrated and aimed at “all available screens”.
What is more, said Ornass-Kubacki, SES Astra is proud and delighted to be Orange’s partner in the project. The company’s rich experience in establishing and servicing DTH platforms in the region, not only on technical but also on the sales, content and marketing side, makes SES, is his view, a solid partner for Orange TV. SES Astra has a growing presence in Central and Eastern Europe and this new deal shows that the orbital slot 31.5 degrees East is becoming a new hot spot for the region.
