The vice president of Discovery in the Nordics has expressed surprise that YouSee has informed its customers that it will no longer be offering Discovery-owned channels from the New Year.
Last week the Danish operator said it wanted negotiations to continue, but it was getting close to the new year. It warned customers that Discovery Networks’ channels might not be a part of its ‘Bland Self’ packages from January 1.
“We are very surprised that YouSee have informed their customers that they will not offer our channels from January, as we were under the impression that we had conversations with them,” Espen Skoland told Broadband TV News. “But if that happens we will work to strengthen our partnership with the other Danish distributors, that behave as real partners. And right now we have the fastest growing streaming service in the Nordics, Dplay, so there are plenty of alternatives for customers that wants to watch our content.”
YouSee says it’s unable to raise prices because of regulatory issues, so when a channel provider wants to increase fees, the operator finds itself trapped.
Bland Self allows customers to build their own ‘personal’ TV package. It’s currently the operators most popular TV package among new customers.
“YouSee is talking a lot about giving their customers more flexibility, but what is really happening here is that YouSee and TDC are taking away beloved content so they can line their own pockets. Danish consumers just continue to pay the same price for less content,” says Skoland.
Last year, Discovery grew its international distribution revenues by 8%.
