Russia
sets out DTT channel strategy
Russia’s President Medvedev has signed a decree that guarantees
viewers will receive eight free TV channels and three free radio stations
when the country completes its transition to digital broadcasting. The
TV channels in question will be Channel One, Rossiya, Vesti 24, NTV, Kultura,
Sports and Petersburg – Channel 5, along with a still-to-be launched
channel aimed at children and young people. The latter, based in Telenyana
and Bibigon, will have to be set up by January 1, 2011. All the channels
will be distributed over one frequency employing MPEG-4 compression.
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This
report, which is part of the Broadband TV News Briefing Series,
looks at the cable industries of the 14 largest markets in CEE.
Besides providing an up-to-date overview of each market, it also
includes detailed sections on the key players, where they currently
stand in the digitalisation process and their plans for the future. Buy
Now from the Broadband TV News Shop.
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Bulgaria
awards DTT licence
Hannu Pro has secured the right to operate three DTT multiplexes
in Bulgaria. Several reports indicate that the country’s Communications
Regulatory Commission (CRC) has awarded the licences, after having shortlisted
Hannu Pro Bulgaria and Adepto from six original candidates. Hannu Pro
is a leading system integrator company, based in the Baltic Republics
and part of the Silicon Group. Bulgaria is aiming to complete the transition
to digital broadcasting in December 2012.
Multimedia
outlines future plans
The Polish cable operator Multimedia Polska expects to invest
between PLN170-190 million (€37.6 – 42.0 million) this year
on upgrading its infrastructure, according president Andrzej Rogowski.
Quoted in Wirtualne Media, he added while much of this money will come
from revenues, some may also be obtained from bank credits. Rogowski said
that Multimedia Polska’s build plans in Warsaw are going according
to plan – it expects to have passed 80,000 households by September,
with the figure subsequently rising to 120,000. It is also likely to become
a MVNO and start to offer mobile internet services. Earlier this week
it was announced that Multimedia Polska now has 100,000 digital TV subscribers.
IPTV
boost for Romania
The hitherto tiny IPTV sector in Romania is likely to grow significantly
in the next five years. According to the findings of a report produced
by Pyramid Research and published in ZF, this will be due to the entry
of a number of new suppliers such as Orange, Vodafone and the incumbent
telco Romtelecom, which already operates Dolce, one of the country’s
five DTH platforms. At present, IPTV services are confined to such companies
as Bucharest-based Ines, which had only around 500 subscribers at the
end of last year. The report also predicts that the fixed line internet
market, both DSL and cable, will grow by a rate of 4.1% a year to 2014.
Bulgarian
news channel secures backer
The Bulgarian news-based cable and satellite channel Evropa has
seen a change in ownership. According to Dnevnik, an Austrian media company
named Stevia Communications has agreed to buy a 50% stake in the channel
for an undisclosed fee. Stevia Communications is understood to be part
of Altelys, a media group with interests in The Netherlands and reportedly
negotiating the acquisition of TV stations in Serbia and Macedonia. Evropa
was launched in 2001 and aims to set up a second channel, offering entertainment
programming, in the next couple of months.
DTT
subsidy worry for Poland
Up to 1.4 million homes in Poland could be left without the ability
to watch TV following the country’s transition to digital broadcasting.
According to Gazeta Prawna, neither the Ministry of Finance, nor indeed
cable and satellite operators, are willing to contribute towards the estimated
PLN350 million (€77.3 million) that would be needed to subsidise
set-top boxes for the most needy sections of the population. Poland will
start switching off analogue transmitters in 2011 and complete the transition
to digital broadcasting two years later.
Final
lap for Polish media law
The Polish parliament (Sejm) has approved all the major changes
to the country’s new media law proposed by the Senate. According
to Gazeta Prawna, the legislation will now be passed to the Polish president.
He can approve or reject the new law, or otherwise forward it on to the
Constitutional Tribunal. The new media law will see the scrapping of receiver
licence fees and introduction of a new financing scheme for public broadcasting
that will have to be approved by the EC.
New
milestone for UPC Romania
UPC now has 250,000 internet subscribers in Romania. Speaking
to ZF, its marketing director Raluca Milin said that considerable investment
and price changes had dramatically reduced the number of customers wishing
to stop using the company’s internet service. Of the €52 million
UPC plans to invest in Romania this year, €15 million will in fact
be allocated to the service, which will start to commercially offer download
speeds of up to 100 Mbps from 2010 onwards. UPC also plans to add HD channels
to its offer in Romania this autumn.
Czech
digital costs mount
Digitalisation is proving to be a costly process for broadcasters
in the Czech Republic. Speaking at the Digimedia 2009 conference and quoted
in HN, Pavel Hanus, the head of programming at CT, said that the public
station is facing the biggest negative impact as it has to date been responsible
for 50% of digitalisation. This is reflected in a huge loss in viewing
figures for its second channel CT2 since switching off analogue transmissions.
Although commercial broadcasters have been hit by the slump in the ad
market, Marek Singer, the DG of TV Prima, said that this had not affected
its strategy. Recently launched digital channels, with still have low
audience figures, remain more vulnerable to the downturn.
Russian
copyright dispute winds down
A music copyright dispute in Russia involving the VGTRK and Prof-Media
appears to be coming an end. Cableman reports that the state broadcaster
VGTRK and Prof Media, which operates MTV, TV3 and 2x2, have finally reached
an agreement with the collection society RAO. The dispute originally stems
from a decision by the government to raise the minimum royalty rate from
1% to 2% of TV stations’ revenues. The only station to still be
in dispute is CTC Media’s DTV.
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Content
Second
channel for Markiza
The leading Slovakian broadcaster TV Markiza says it will launch its
first thematic channel at the start of the autumn season. Known as Doma
(‘Home’), it will target the younger segment of female viewers
aged 12-54. CME-backed TV Markiza is facing growing competition from
the commercial station TV Joj, which launched a channel known as Joj
Plus in October 2008. Doma is likely to be modelled on the highly successful
Acasa, launched by TV Markiza sister station Pro TV in Romania a decade
ago.
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People
Leading executive
to leave CME
Wallace Macmillan is to step down as the CFO of Central European Media
Enterprises (CME), effective July 1. He will be replaced on an interim
basis by Charles Frank Jr, who has been an independent director at the
company since 2001. CME operates commercial TV stations in seven CEE countries.
New
Fox Baltics sales rep
Fox International Channels (FIC) has appointed Karoli Hindriks its ad
sales representatives for the Baltic Republics. Based in the Estonian
capital, Tallinn, she will work from the local company Goodmood Media
OÜ to develop a commercial department for the region. Hindriks was
previously marketing manger for MTV Networks Baltics and the country manager
for Estonia.
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Chris
Dziadul Reports
Russia
gets going
Russia’s
transition to digital broadcasting is finally starting to take
shape following a late start, even by regional standards.
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Although it was
one of the first countries in CEE to launch a DTT service – Telemedium
operated in St Petersburg between 2002 and 2004 – Russia has only
had a digital strategy in place since November 2007. It was then announced
that the DVB-T standard would be employed to offer viewers 5-6 free
public digital TV channels, along with 3-4 free digital radio stations,
by the ASO date, which was set for 2015.
The emphasis was
clearly on offering a basic minimum number of channels nationally, and
there was no mention of pay services. Costs of the transition were put
at €10 billion, of which at least €3.6 billion would come
from the private sector.
Since then we have,
of course, had the global economic crisis, which has hit Russia badly,
as well as phenomenal growth in the take-up of satellite-delivered services.
The latter are now provided by no fewer than five platforms in the country,
with the market leader Tricolor TV claiming around 5 million subscribers.
Although there have
been a number of announcements related to the transition in the last
year and a half, two made earlier this week were of particular significance.
The first saw President
Medvedev approve the composition of what will be Russia’s first
DTT multiplex. In total, it will carry eight digital TV channels and
three digital radio stations, all of which will be available to viewers
free of charge. Perhaps the only surprise was the omission of the national
commercial network CTC, which is backed by Modern Times Group (MTG),
from the list.
The second was a
clarification of the costs that will be involved in undertaking the
transition. According to Igor Shchegolev, the Minister of Mass Communications,
they will be region of R120-127 billion (€2.76 -2.92 billion),
of which some R80 billion will be provided by the federal budget.
He added that launching
a national DTT service would require the use of five new satellites
and that ASO would only be completed once 95% of the population have
digital decoders, typically costing $80-100 (€57.3-71.7) each.
Certainly at this
stage, there are no plans to include a pay element in Russia’s
future DTT operation. The emphasis will be on delivering a basic minimum
service, most probably through the use of state-of-the-art technology,
to the entire population.
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