New international streaming services will soon start to make their presence felt across Central and Eastern Europe.
Disney+, for instance, is likely to make its debut in the region at some stage in 2021, while discovery+ will launch in Poland later this month. Meanwhile, HBO Max will replace existing HBO streaming services in the second half of next year.
Although this week’s announcement on discovery+’s global rollout was thin on detail when it came to CEE, TVN Discovery Polska did reveal that the service would be made available on its Player on demand platform. It also said that information about discovery+’s offer in Poland would soon be made available.
Given that Discovery is TVN’s parent company, it should probably come as no surprise that Poland will be one of the first, if not the first, CEE market in which discovery+ will make its debut.
Elsewhere in the region, Discovery is a minority shareholder in Media Alliance, the company that distributes its channels in Russia. An announcement about discovery+’s launch in the country is also expected soon.
At the same time, local industry reports have indicated that the Czech Republic and Slovakia are not on the initial list of markets discovery+ will make its debut and will have to wait longer for the service.
This will nevertheless not be the case in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Baltic Republics, Georgia, Armenia and six Central Asian Republics thanks to a strategic partnership Discovery entered into last month with the online video and TV services provider Megogo.
Alongside the global rollout of discovery+ we learnt this week that HBO Max will from H2 next year be made available in CEE, the Nordics and Latin America.
HBO is one of the longest-established providers of premium services in the CEE region, having made its debut in Hungary in the early 1990s, and this development is particularly important, marking a significant increase in content being made available to viewers.
