CEE 2011 > Pay-TV platforms


Digital TV Europe June 2011


Platform priorities


The effects of the economic crisis and the maturing of some markets is making life chal- lenging for pay TV operators in central and eastern Europe, but there is still significant opportunity for growth. Stuart Thomson & Graham Pomphrey report.


The pay TV market in cen- tral and east-


ern Europe is beginning to mature. While there remains significant room for growth by comparison with western Europe, the rate of growth achieved by operators in the region is beginning to flatten out, with competing providers being forced to search harder for new subscribers.


There remains a huge amount of variation within the region. While the pay TV industry in Poland enjoys western European levels of penetration, pay TV in a number of markets remains significantly underdeveloped. Levels of ARPU, though generally lower than in western Europe, differ significantly between the various countries in the region.


Higher-end subscribers


In Poland, the region’s most advanced pay TV market, a significant opportunity exists for premium services and HD content. Poland is notably strong in HD. TVN-backed DTH operator ‘n’ has been notably successful in capturing higher-end subscribers. Despite the relative maturity of the pay TV market in the country, ‘n’’s chief operating officer Christian Anting believes there is still room for growth. “We still expect subscriber growth over the next few years,” says Anting. He says that about three million Polish households will be affected by the country’s terrestrial switchover, scheduled for 2013, and that about a third of these could be attracted to DTH pay TV. “We think a big part of our growth could come from that,” he says. Another factor that could encourage take-up, he says, is the European Championship football tournament, set to take place in Poland and Ukraine next May. This event, he says, “traditionally triggers sales of TV screens”. With this in mind ‘n’ has teamed up with TV manufacturer Sony to launch a CI Plus CAM. The CI Plus offering,


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