The glut of first quarter results published in the last few days have revealed some interesting – and at times also surprising – facts about the TV market in CEE.
Take Liberty Global’s, for instance. Buried deep in an hour-long conference call were two references to Horizon’s next launch, which will learnt will take place in Poland, most probably later this year.
Then there was the news, contained in the published figures, three of the company’s four DTH platforms in CEE had lost subscribers in the first quarter. Although all find themselves in highly competitive markets, this was not exactly a welcome development.
Meanwhile, CME’s results at long last showed an across-the-board improvement in financials. Having also just completed its rights offering, the Time Warner-backed company is by no means out of the woods yet but looks much better placed than it has for some time.
The picture is less rosy for Telekom Austria, which until recently seemed to be doing quite well in CEE. However, it is now facing challenging conditions in a number of regional markets, including Bulgaria and Croatia, and this is reflected in its Q1 performance, with revenues, EBITDA and net profit all falling year-on-year.
Even so, the Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim is set to take control of the company and will undoubtedly strengthen its position in the region.
On the other hand, Magyar Telekom, Telekom Austria’s Hungarian counterpart, could point to impressive growth in its TV business over the previous 12 months, with the subscriber total for the three markets it offers services (Hungary, Macedonia and Montenegro) exceeding one million as of the end of March.
In Hungary, the standout performer was the group’s IPTV operation, which saw its customer base grow by a fifth in a 12-month period.
Alongside its results, Magyar Telekom has also just announced the launch of a multiscreen service.
Deutsche Telekom, its parent company, is meanwhile preparing a major rebrand for Romania’s Romtelecom and Cosmote, which are backed by its Greek subsidiary OTE.
