2018 looks likely to be an eventful year for the TV industry in Central and Eastern Europe.
Certainly on the M&A front, it could well prove to be as busy if not more so than 2017. While all eyes will be on UPC’s long-awaited acquisition of Poland’s Multimedia Polska – the competition authority UOKiK has certainly taken its time to make a decision – and CME’s possible sale of its TV assets in six regional markets, there will also be a number surprise deals, some involving companies, both local and foreign, whose main interests lie outside the industry.
Indeed, in the case of CME it has just been reported that China’s CEFC has teamed up with the Czech/Slovak financial group Penta and submitted a joint bid of around $2 billion to buy those assets.
More generally, consolidation is likely to gather pace, particularly in cable and more especially in some markets – Romania, for instance – than others.
However, the greatest activity will probably be seen in the OTT/on demand sectors. Netflix, which didn’t get off to the best of starts in the region in early 2016, will continue to make headway. However, this will require it to quicken the introduction of localised content. To all intents and purposes, it has to date only made a real effort in Poland, where it faces strong competition both several well-established local services (including Ipla and Player.pl) and the Naspers-owned newcomer Showmax.
As for Netflix’s future prospects in Russia, well who knows? Local OTT services there are growing rapidly and for the first time posting higher revenues from subscribers’ fees than advertising. While piracy remains a huge problem in the country, and indeed most others in the region, viewers are increasingly willing to pay for content and this will certainly continue in 2018.
Elsewhere, more local OTT operations are likely to appear. In Hungary, Antenna Hungária set the scene towards the end of this year with the launch of two new services and other companies could follow its lead elsewhere in the region.
On the technological front, we will continue to see the gradual introduction of Ultra HD services in several markets. At the same time, the transition to the DVB-T2 standard will be stepped up in countries such as the Czech Republic.
Questions will also continue to be asked about the situation in Poland, and in particular the prospects for foreign owned broadcasters such as TVN, which has recently found itself under political pressure. Limits on the level of foreign ownership in media could well be introduced, though these will principally be aimed at the print rather than broadcast media.
2018 should indeed prove to be an eventful year for the TV industry in Central and Eastern Europe.
