Chris Dziadul reviews developments in the Czech Republic Perhaps the clearest message to emerge from this week’s Czech Association of Competitive Communications (CACC) conference in Prague was that the country’s electronic communications industry currently finds itself in a state of flux. In the cable sector, Liberty Global’s high-profile acquisition of the second largest operator Karneval, […]
Branching out. Chris Dziadul looks at the activities of Comstar-UTS
A series of announcements in the last few days have served to underline the increasingly important role played by Sistema-backed Comstar-UTS in Russia’s electronic communications marketplace. Eric Franke, Comstar-UTS’s president and CEO, says the company is a telco rather than broadcaster, focusing its attention on such areas as interactive TV and IP over broadband. And […]
Clover’s Week: IPTV comes off the bench
Grenoble is the location for an IPTV test centre. Julian Clover reports France has collectively the greatest concentration of IPTV connections in Europe, and so it seems fitting that the country should be the base for a benchmark server test, designed to simulate what is needed to provide a service to one million subscribers. The […]
Chris Dziadul Reports: Two becomes one.
Chris Dziadul looks at developments in Bulgarian cable The process of consolidation that has been a constant feature in cable markets throughout the region in recent years is finally being felt in Bulgaria. While CableTel’s acquisition of Evrotur will not create a near-monopoly situation comparable to that in the Czech Republic, for instance, it will […]
Clover’s Week: Market day
Jalipo is looking to create a broadband marketplace for TV content. Julian Clover reports A new business model is being proposed for broadband TV that offers customers a low commitment pay-as-you-go means to enjoy online TV. Jalipo will launch its service in the form of an open beta at MIP TV in Cannes next week […]
Clover’s Week: ICSTIS rings the changes
The premium telephony regulator has introduced new rules designed to restore confidence in the sector. Julian Clover reports It’s been a bad few months for the participation TV sector. January’s criticisms from MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee were followed by a series of scandals that enveloped the big 5 channels. Edward […]
Challenging times.Chris Dziadul looks at a change at the helm at TVP
Earlier this week the Polish public broadcaster chose Andrzej Urbanski as its new president. Succeeding the controversial Bronislaw Wildstein, who vacated the post just over a month ago, he will have the none-too-easy task of mapping out a course for the station. Despite the fierce competition that exists between the Polish national commercial services Polsat […]
Gearing up. Chris Dziadul looks at digital rollout across CEE
No one can doubt the huge advances that have been made by Central and Eastern Europe’s TV industry in recent years, though especially since eight countries in the region joined the EU in May 2004. However, they have been far from uniform, and there is clearly much work that still needs to be done. This […]
Clover’s Week: Five becomes ten
The UK’s last analogue licensee is 10 years old this week, but will it be late for its own party asks Julian Clover? Ten years ago people up and down the land received a knock on their door. A man had come round to retune the video recorder so that we could all receive the […]
Tough times.Chris Dziadul looks at Romtelecom
Romtelecom’s latest results only serve to highlight the increasingly competitive nature of the Romanian electronic communications marketplace. The telco, which is owned by its Greek counterpart OTE (54.01%) and Romanian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology – MCTI (45.99%), has undoubtedly had its work cut out following full market liberalisation. Today, it finds itself operating […]