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Viewing report
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Digital Cable in Central and East Europe
Broadband TV News, May 2009, Pages: 39
The cable industry in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is well established, providing services to between 30-35 million homes across the region.
However, it is also an industry under intense pressure from competing platforms. Cable’s response to the growing competition from DTH and IPTV has been to consolidate and invest heavily in upgrading its infrastructure. This is finally starting to bear fruit as more and more operators roll out such additional services as digital TV, VOD and HD channels.
Although this appears very much like a game of ‘catch-up’ in some markets, with such services having been first introduced by DTH platforms (HD in the case of Poland’s n and Russia’s NTV-Plus), leading players such as Liberty Global’s UPC are in the vanguard of new service offerings. Its digital cable services were already received in 300,000 homes in the Czech Republic in Q1 2009, along with over 150,000 in Romania and 100,000 in Poland. If present trends continue, up to 1 million UPC cable homes in CEE could be subscribing to digital cable by the end of 2009.
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.
As such, it should provide a useful reference tool for anyone interested in the digital cable sector in CEE and the opportunities it offers.
- Understand the structure and strategies of the region’s cable operators
- Assess the prospects of the main cable players against other powerful operators
- Evaluate the technologies and services that are delivering new subscribers, reducing churn and increasing revenues
- Examine each of the competitors in every major CEE market and their plans
Market Overview:
Baltkom and Izzi, formerly known as Telia Multicom, have dominated Latvia’s cable industry for a number of years. Baltkom was the first operator in the country to introduce triple play, and has since – like Izzi – gone on to become a quadruple play company.
Baltkom, though not Izzi, participated in a DTT tender that was ultimately won by the incumbent telco Lattelecom in January 2009.
Latvia’s cable industry also received a shock in the same month when the VAT on cable service was increased from 18% to 21%. The VAT on goods and services in general was meanwhile increased from 18% to 21%, and as a result operators were forced to raise their subscription fees.
As of Q1 2009, operators were also involved in a dispute with Viasat Broadcasting over the latter’s plans to impose of fee for the distribution of TV3, which had previously been available free of charge.
Author: Chris Dziadul
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