Rarely in the spotlight, the Croatian incumbent Hrvatski Telekom (HT) is nevertheless making steady progress in what is still a challenging market.
Just this week we learned that it has launched a new generation of its MAXtv service, largely in response to viewers’ changing viewing habits. Put simply, they are increasingly choosing to access content on mobile devices and outside their homes and want a service that is interactive, personalised and available everywhere.
HT has also just launched a new app named TVizzy that allows viewers to follow key moments in Croatian premier league football matches. Employing ‘rich notifications’ technology, it is currently in beta and will be fully operational in time for the start of next season.
Earlier this month, we reported that HT has launched the largest IT project in Croatia to date. Undertaken with a number of partner companies, it will see an investment of €28.2 million over the next three years and raise the standard of the QoS and user experience to a higher level.
Alongside this, the telco continues to invest heavily in its fibre-optic infrastructure. In the first quarter of this year its fibre-optic fixed network added a further 15,000 households to its coverage, bringing the total to 825,000. At the same time, the combined fixed/mobile Magenta 1 offer, which was launched in H1 2016 and includes the on demand services Pickbox and MAXtv To Go, already had over 67,000 customers.
Perhaps the most important development at HT in recent months has been the consolidation of Montenegro’s Crnogorski Telekom at the start of the year. Not surprisingly, this has already had a positive impact on the company’s results by significantly increasing its revenues.
HT has also been helped by an improvement in Croatia’s economy, with GDP growing strongly in H2 2016 and expected to continue doing so this year.
Furthermore, the pay-TV market is still expanding and both HT and its main competitor Telekom Austria are gaining subscribers.
