In what is a rapidly changing electronic communications market, it is worth keeping a particularly close eye on four telcos in Central and Eastern Europe.
Vodafone, Orange, Deutsche Telekom and Telekom Austria may have differing levels of involvement in the region, but they are all key and increasingly important players.
Take Vodafone, which currently has a presence in Albania, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. Late last year, its CEO Vittorio Colao said that it was looking into the possibility of entering the latter’s TV market and had held talks with all the major players, including RCS&RDS and UPC Romania.
Given Vodafone’s already strong presence in the country – besides being the country’s second largest mobile operator, it has a national fibre network – moving into TV would be a logical next step.
Needless to say, should the recently much-discussed deal between Vodafone and Liberty Global materialise, the company could also potentially gain access to the TV markets in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania through UPC’s cable and DTH operations.
Meanwhile, Orange has a presence in Moldova, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. It is also already a key player in all four countries’ TV industries.
The importance Orange attaches to its CEE operations was arguably underlined only earlier this week, when it chose Romania to give a debut to the Orange TV stick.
Although expanding to other markets in the region is probably not on Orange’s agenda at present, strengthening its position in the existing ones, not least in the provision of pay-TV and other services, certainly is.
The same probably holds true for Deutsche Telekom, with the company already a leading player in Croatia (Hrvatski Telekom), Hungary (Magyar Telekom), Romania (Telekom Romania) and Slovakia (Slovak Telekom), along with Macedonia and Montenegro. However, its stated aim, according to CEO Timotheus Höttges, is “to become the leading European telecommunications provider” and it is unlikely to rest on its laurels.
Telekom Austria, on the other hand, is making huge progress in establishing itself as one of the leading players in South East Europe, with interests in several markets including Bulgaria (MTel) and Croatia (Vipnet). This month alone it has acquired the alternative telco Amis, which operates in Slovenia and Croatia, and signed an agreement with Payner Media in Bulgaria for distribution of its two Planeta-branded channels.
It’s probably a safe bet to say that Vodafone, Orange, Deutsche Telekom and Telekom Austria will feature even more prominently in CEE’s TV industry in the months and years to come.
