Can a white label DTH platform solution be made to work in Central and Eastern Europe?
Earlier this year it was announced that Telenor Satellite Broadcasting (TSBc) had entered into a transmission agreement with the telco Neterra to launch such a platform, named W1, in Bulgaria. The arguments for the platform and why it would work looked compelling at the time, yet the agreement between the two parties was terminated towards the end of last month.
Neterra provided no explanation as to why this happened, whereas TSBc subsequently issued a statement in which is said that following ongoing reviews it had concluded that “the project was not progressing according to expectations and the contract was therefore terminated”.
The biggest surprise in all this was what followed, with Israel’s SpaceCom, the operator of Amos, announcing out of the blue that it had effectively stepped in to sign a similar agreement with Neterra.
This has all come against the backdrop of recent developments elsewhere, with Telekom Austria announcing plans at IBC to launch its own white label solution in the CEE and indeed further afield.
It then went on to sign its first agreement with Vipnet, its Croatian subsidiary, and one of the next is likely to be with Bulgaria’s M-Tel, also a subsidiary.
The latter would be particularly interesting, as it would effectively result in a situation in which both Telekom Austria/M-Tel and Neterra/SpaceCom would be offering DTH white label services in a single market. However, whether Bulgaria is the right market for such services may be a different matter.
Indeed, the white label solution may be more suitable to some markets than others. Arguably, it may work best in those in which the DTH market is not already a dominant player and where providers of TV services, such as small cable operators, are keen, but currently unable to afford to, improve their offers.
The next few months will hopefully provide more clarity on the prospects for white label DTH in the region.
