News > digest
Digital TV Europe July/August 2010
Romania
CAB > Price-cut damage The Romanian pay-TV market has reached saturation point and operators face an uncertain future unless operators can find a way to raise prices and ARPU, according to Radu Petric, presi- dent of the Romanian Cable Communications Association. Petric told delegates to Informa Telecoms & Media’s Digital TV CEE conference in Bucharest in June that the competitive nature of the Romanian market, where five DTH providers compete with each other and a fragmented cable industry, meant that service providers had little room for manoeuvre to vary offerings or raise ARPU through price hikes. Petric said that DTH players had undercut already very low basic cable subscription rates with basic services priced at under €4 a month, and that aggressive pricing was “poisoning” the busi-
ness. In recent years, Romania’s DTH providers, led by RCS & RDS – also a leading cable operator – have competed aggressively on price, a strategy that RCS & RDS has now taken to neighbouring markets in the region. “Someone will have to rethink strategy away from a price war without aim,” said Petric. He said that premium services attracted only about 8% of the overall pay-TV subscriber base. There was now a high risk of the same price-cutting strategy emerging as the dominant theme in the marketing of high-speed internet services, he added: “The land grab has to stop because there is no land left to grab.”
Spain
CAB >Mixed news for Prisa Spanish media group Prisa has posted a net profit of €60.88m for the first half of this year, up 123.6% year-on-year. However. Prisa posted half-year revenues
of €1.577bn, down 6% from €1.678bn, which the company said
was down to changes in the way it marketed its premium football offer. EBITDA stood at €249.9m, up 7.4% year-on-year. Audiovisual services accounted for €860.13m, or 54.5% of Prisa’s overall revenues for the period, while EBITDA from audiovisual stood at €139.66m. Digital Plus had 1.785 million subscribers at the end of the period, with ARPU standing at €42.20, up 1.6%.
CAB > Mobile agreement Spain’s leading cable operators Ono, Euskaltel, Telecable and R have joined forces to bid for mobile frequencies to offer both traditional mobile voice services and mobile broadband. The agreement between the operators is the first of its kind in Spain. The cable providers intend to bid for frequencies in the 800MHz and 2.6GHz range in order to compete on an equal footing with mobile players. New
frequencies are expected to be released next year, and the cable operators also want to take advantage of any ‘refarming’ of frequencies for uses for which they were not originally planned. Currently cable operators have to use the networks of Vodafone, Movistar and Orange to offer mobile services. The cable opera- tors have called on the Spanish ministry of industry, tourism and trade, which will assign new fre- quencies, to take advantage of an opportunity to improve competi- tion in the market, and have cited competition regulator the CNC’s recent warning that new frequen- cies should not be awarded to the incumbent mobile players.
Sweden
SAT > MTG sees growth Modern Times group saw growth across the majority of its business during the second quarter, although sales were down in the
VM deal and Ofcom ruling lead to launch of multiple sport offers By Graham Pomphrey >
Virgin Media has confirmed it will launch the Sky Sports 1 HD and Sky Sports 2 HD channels from BSkyB on cable for the first time on August 2.
The channels will cost £7
(€8.28) per month on any TV package as long as subscribers also take the standard definition versions of the channels. That fee will give access to “sub- scribed Sky Premium” HD channels, meaning that those taking the Sky Movies package will receive high definition ver- sions of the channels. The deal with Sky also brings Sky 1 HD and Sky Arts HD to Virgin Media’s basic HD channel line- up. The move comes after
Virgin Media and others will offer Sky Sports packages.
Virgin Media secured new long- term carriage deals for whole- sale distribution of Sky’s basic packages during the negotia- tions that saw the cable opera- tor sell its channels business VMtv to Sky earlier this month. It is understood that the parties agreed that Virgin Media would have the option of carrying any of Sky’s basic and premium HD channels for the first time for an incremental wholesale
fee. Sky acquired Virgin’s chan- nels business VMtv, now re- named the Living TV Group, for an initial £105m. Up to an additional £55m will be paid on UK regulatory clearance. Sky has acquired LIVING, LIVINGit, Challenge, Challenge Jackpot, Bravo, Bravo 2 and Virgin1 and their related websites. Virgin Media’s announce- ment came weeks after rival pay-TV service BT
Vision
announced plans to offer a low- cost Sky Sports package follow- ing regulator Ofcom’s decision to force Sky to sell its sports channels at a wholesale price. BT is offering Sky Sports 1 and 2 for £16.99 a month as a pack- age on a month-by-month
basis, or £11.99 for each chan- nel individually to customers, renewable on a monthly basis, that sign up for a 12-month BT broadband and BT Vision con- tract. Digital-terrestrial pay-TV operator Top Up TV is also adding the Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 channels to its sports package. As well as the Sky channels the package will include the ESPN channel. Sky Sports 1 will cost £22.99 a month via Top Up TV and Sky Sports 1 & 2 combined £31.99 a month. Sky Sports 1 & 2 and ESPN will cost £39.99 a month. UK free-to-air satellite service Freesat is also mulling the launch of a pay-TV offering of Sky Sports 1 and 2, according to UK press reports.
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