This year has been particularly busy for the TV industry in Central and Eastern Europe.
There were probably more M&As than might have been expected, with the standout one being undoubtedly the acquisition of TVN, one of Poland’s largest broadcasters, by Scripps Networks Interactive.
Other important deals included Telekom Austria’s acquisition of Blizoo, Bulgaria’s largest cable operator, through its local subsidiary Mobiltel and Russia’s CTC Media, formerly majority owned by Modern Times Group (MTG), by UTH Russia.
MTG also sold its international and Russian pay-TV businesses, to a subsidiary of the private equity firm Baring Vostok and a Russian company respectively.
Meanwhile, the Hungarian national commercial broadcaster TV2, after a period of confusion, was sold to Andrew G. Vajna and the Bulgarian incumbent Vivacom found yet another new owner, this time in the shape of the local entrepreneur Spas Roussev.
Romania’s RCS&RDS sold its Czech operation to the local utility group Lama Energy, while in the technology sector TiVo acquired Poland’s Cubiware.
At the same time, there were some acquisitions that were expected to happen but never did. Telekom Slovenije, for instance, looked likely to bought by Cinven only for the deal to collapse. Something similar could happen to the privatisation of Telekom Srbija, with a decision, one way or the other, expected on December 11.
2015 was characterised by a huge number of new TV channel launches throughout the region, many of them by established broadcasters hoping to steel a march on, or indeed just keep up with, their competitors.
OTT services became increasingly commonplace, while in the cable industry UPC continued its rollout of Horizon.
HD services are now commonplace in most CEE countries, with spectacular growth in take-up seen in some markets, including Russia, and 4K will no doubt soon also start to make an impact.
There is indeed much to look forward to as we head into the New Year.
