The Slovak commercial station Joj has been bought by J&T Media Enterprises from Grabofal Group for an undisclosed fee. At the same time, Grabofal Group has gained control of TA3 from J&T Finance Group. In the former case, J&T Media Enterprises has become the owner of Joj by buying both its licence holder (Mac TV) […]
Chris Dziadul Reports: Deal or no deal?
Chris Dziadul looks at proposed, completed and doubtful deals across the region The news that Russia’s Sistema may be about to buy into one of Western Europe’s most powerful multimedia companies should come as no surprise. Securing even a minority stake in Telecom Italia, which is valued at around $60 billion (€46.3 billion) and has […]
Motive secures Elion deal
The leading Estonian telco and IT provider Elion has opted for the Internet Helper high-speed data solution from Motive. It will be used by the company in the rollout of new broadband services for its residential and business customers. Elion is owned by Eesti Telekom and operates an IPTV service known as DigiTV that currently […]
Zodiak expands in Russia
Sweden’s Zodiak Television has opened a new company named Zodiak Vostok to handle production, business development and sales in Russia and the CIS. Zodiak already has a strong presence in the region through TeleAlliance, a leading Russian production company in which it holds a 51% stake.(CD)
Aster improves digital offer
The Polish MSO Aster has announced important changes to its digital TV offer. As of this Friday (January 19) the BasicPlus package will be increased from 25 to 38 channels, with viewers seeing no increase in their subscription fee. The new services, hitherto available just on analogue, include Zone Romantica, Zone Reality, MTV Polska and […]
All change at Inter TV
The leading Ukrainian broadcaster Inter TV is reported to have secured a company named Ukrmediaproekt as its new majority (61%) shareholder. Up until now, Dolovyy Svit had held 51% in the station, with the remaining owners being Pegas Television (20%) and Russia’s Channel One (29%). Inter TV’s new ownership structure will see Channel One retain […]
Slovenia opts for MPEG-4
Slovenia’s Agency for Post and Electronic Communications (APEK) has chosen the MPEG-4 transport stream as the standard for digital terrestrial television in the country. The agency will shortly commence the DTT licensing process. The majority of other European countries that have so far announced their technical parameters have all opted for the MPEG-2 standard. The […]
O2 TV seeks more subscribers
The incumbent Czech telco Telefónica O2 is preparing to introduce a self-install option for its IPTV service. Launched in September 2006, O2 TV, which already has 18,000 subscribers, can currently take over two weeks to receive after the placement of an order. It competes directly with the cable industry, which is dominated by UPC/Karneval, and […]
Rebuke for Poland’s Toya
The Polish Office for Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has given a strong dressing down to Toya, the country’s fifth largest cable operator. According to the watchdog, the Lodz-based company, which has a 40% market share in the central Polish city, charged its 150,000 subscribers fees based on their addresses. Although not issued with a […]
Polish ad market set to grow
Poland’s ad market is likely to grow by 9% to PLN6 billion (€1.55 billion) in 2007. The forecast, which has been made by Gazeta Prawna, anticipates that the launch of a new national daily named Polskapresse in the second half of the year will act as a catalyst and overshadow developments in an increasingly competitive […]