The Hungarian government is looking into the possibility of charging Netflix for operating in the country.
Speaking in a panel discussion at PIKE 2017 in the Polish city of Poznan entitled The future of the telecom industry, Ferenc Kery, the president of the Hungarian Cable Communication Association (HCA), added that it could in fact use funding obtained from the SVOD service to help develop infrastructure in the country.
Kery also pointed out that there are also some interesting trends currently taking place in Hungary. These include some operators selling their businesses to focus solely on content.
Meanwhile, Mikhail Silin, VP of the Russian Cable Television Association, said he was pessimistic about the future of cable. In his view, OTT will soon come to dominate and it is important for cable operators to start thinking about this now as in five years time it will be “a different world with different players” and too late.
Silin also expressed his opposition to net neutrality, while Vaiva Zukiene from the Lithuanian Cable TV Association (LKTA) said that in Lithuania net neutrality is looked upon suspiciously.
