The Slovak national transmission Towercom has made significant progress in its efforts to launch a DTH platform.
Zive reports that it has signed agreements with Markiza and Joj, the country’s leading commercial broadcasters, to distribute their channels Markiza, Doma, Dajto, Joj, Joj Plus and Wau in SD for free.
This comes on top of an agreement reached with the public broadcaster RTVS last month to also distribute its two channels Jednotka and Dvojka for free.
The agreement with Markiza apparently took a while to reach and is only for a limited time. Both Markiza and Joj would charge for the right to distribute their channels in HD.
There are question marks as to how long Towercom will be able to offer the basic services on its planned platform free to viewers.
It is pointed out that Skylink, the market leader in both Slovakia and Czech Republic, moved away from such a model by introducing a service charge, which now amounts to €2.40 a month, for its basic service.
