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 […]
Austrian bid for Romtelecom
Telekom Austria is about to buy into the incumbent Romanian telco Romtelecom. According to several reports, a deal close to completion will see the Austrian company acquire up to 50% of the 54.01% stake in Romtelecom currently held by Greece’s OTE. Although Deutsche Telekom has also been quoted as a possible buyer, Telekom Austria has […]
News Corp. discovers Poland
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. has stepped up its presence in Poland by launching the women’s channel Fox Life and announcing plans to open an office. It has also hinted at launching two further channels – Fox Crime and FX – and is widely expected to build on its existing media interests in the country. These […]
Chris Dziadul Reports: Acting by instinct
Central and Eastern Europe was until recently quite low down in News Corp.’s list of priorities. Russia, certainly, wetted the appetite, and a foothold of sorts had been established in the Balkans through the Bulgarian national commercial station bTV. But for the region as a whole, investing in the TV industry was largely out of […]
Gilat secures Serbian deal
The incumbent Serbian telco Telekom Serbia has chosen Gilat satellite Networks’s SkyEdge broadband satellite hub and several hundred VSats to serve its customers. They will be deployed at remote community centres throughout the country to provide reliable telephony, fax and Internet access, as well as used in the TV re-broadcasting and enterprise networking sectors. Telekom […]
Macedonian licensing change
Licences for electronic media are to be issued by the Broadcasting Council of Macedonia from May 2007, replacing a system of concessions provided by the government. The change is in line with the current broadcasting law, which came into effect in November 2005, and effectively grants the Council independence. A new law currently being drafted […]
Hungary’s HTCC buys Invitel
Consolidation in the Hungarian telecom marketplace is gathering momentum, with the latest deal seeing Hungarian Telephone and Cable Corp. (HTCC) acquire Invitel from American International Group and GMT Communication Partners for €470 million. It is now expected that HTCC, which is 63% owned by Denmark’s TDC, will be able to compete more effectively with the […]