Optibase has completed the installation of what is the first turnkey MPEG-4 IPTV solution in the Baltic Republics for Lattelecom, the incumbent Latvian telco. It will allow the telco, which is 49% indirectly owned by TeliaSonera, to offer a range of interactive services on its IPTV platform. Lattelecom began this year with 106,000 Internet and […]
HD boost for Czech Republic
The Czech Broadcasting Council (RRTV) has awarded a licence to what will be the country’s first HDTV channel. Known as Nonstop Kino HD, it will be operated by a company named Help Film and a HD version of the film channel Nonstop Kino, which made its debut on Karneval, the cable operator now owned by […]
Yin and Yang. Chris Dziadul analyses two contrasting markets
Near neighbours Romania and Slovakia are in many respects at opposite ends of the region’s TV industry spectrum. While the former is generally acknowledged to be a dynamic market attractive to foreign investors, the latter is resolutely low-key and at times feels cut off from the mainstream. These perceptions have to some degree been borne […]
Magyar Telekom secures Mobilpress
Magyar Telekom has been given the green light by the competition authority in Hungary to acquire Mobilpress, one of the country’s leading mobile content producers and aggregators. Last December the incumbent Deutsche Telekom-backed telco signed an agreement to buy MobilPress outright and a 75% stake in the mobile content provider MFactory for a combined total […]
Cyfra+/Sharp promote HD
The Polish DTH platform Cyfra+ has signed an agreement with Sharp that will allow both new and existing subscribers to buy 32-52-inch LCD HD sets at a discount. In a promotion due to take place this March and April, they will also be offered the Cyfra+ Prestige package, which includes HD options, free of charge […]
Boost for News Corp. in Poland
The News Corp.-backed Polish broadcaster TV Puls has succeeded in having the terms of its licence changed by the country’s National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT). As a result, it will lose its religious focus and become more of a news and entertainment-based service. The Rupert Murdoch-owned company made its first foray into the Polish TV market […]
Millionaire goes interactive in Slovenia/Slovakia
The Netherlands-based interactive entertainment company 2waytraffic has signed commercial deals relating to its recently acquired format Who wants to be a Millionaire with two broadcasters in Central and Eastern Europe. In Slovenia, publicly owned RTV will produce a minimum of 40 episodes of the show, while in Slovakia its counterpart STV will make at least […]
UPC trials Polish Internet TV
UPC has begun testing an Internet-delivered TV service in Poland. Similar to ones already available in The Netherlands and Switzerland, it consists of six channels – Animal Planet, CNN International, Discovery Channel, Fashion TV, National Geographic and TVN24 – and is initially being made available to its subscribers in Warsaw for no additional fee. UPC […]
Boost for Bulgarian digital TV
According to local reports, the private equity fund CEE Growth Luxembourg Sicar has invested around Leva3 million (€1.54 million) in the Bulgarian ISP bol.bg. As a result, it now controls 70% of Kit OOD, the company that owns the bol.bg trademark. Bol.bg was founded in 1993 by two individuals (Veni Markovski and Mitko Ganchev) and […]
Hot Bird passes 1,000 channels
Eutelsat Communications has said it has broken the barrier of 1,000 video channels in the Hotbird satellite neighbourhood, which grew by 273 channels over the past two years to over 1,050 at end December 2006. The company also announced headline results of its two-year survey of satellite and cable homes. Set up in 1994, the […]