Digital TV Europe June 2011
CEE 2011 > Distribution platforms
operator customers. The DTH platform is using three transponders on Astra’s 23.5° East orbital position to broadcast its range of chan- nels that launched in February. The offer con- sists of more than 70 channels, including some in high definition. “Growth in the cen- tral Europe region has been quite good for SES. When we look at the 23.5° East orbital position, we have made good progress during the year,” said SES CEO Romain Bausch dur- ing a first-quarter results conference call. 23.5° East is Astra’s key location for central and eastern Europe and the Benelux, with other customers including CS Link and Skylink for coverage in the Czech and Slovak Republics. Slovak telco and TV transmission provider Towercom recently signed for one additional transponder to strengthen the bou- quet of Skylink in Slovakia and the Czech Republic with additional content, giving it a total of four transponders. Another location used for the region is 19.2° East, where Astra recently signed off a deal with Serbian telco Telekom Srbija, which has taken capacity for the DTH transmission of Serbian public chan- nels RTS Sat and Radio Beograd. The channels started broadcasting free-to-air on June 1. Despite this year’s deals, Bausch warned the industry not to get carried away and said it would have to face consolidation sooner rather than later. “We see good potential but as we always say, no one should neglect the fact that this market is still under development and the consolidation that we have seen happening in the western European markets 10 or 15 years ago will happen in central and eastern Europe in the coming years,” he said. “There will be shakeouts and consolidation and not all of these customers will continue to offer pay TV via satellite. A market like Romania cannot support five or six pay TV operators on satel- lite, for example. But we see good opportuni- ties and we are ready to find customers that are financially strong, ideally with internation- al experience or those that have a partnership with an international player.” Nordic-based satellite operator Telenor’s 1°
West orbital position has become an estab- lished location for central and eastern Europe. Liberty Global’s DTH service UPC Direct broadcasts from here to homes in Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Moldova. The importance of the region for Telenor was cemented earlier this year when it announced plans to launch new satellite Thor 7, which will provide capacity for broadcast
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services within central and eastern Europe. Thor 7 will join Telenor’s existing satellite fleet including Thor 5 and Thor 6 located at the 1° West orbital position, which currently serves almost 17 million cable and satellite house- holds in Europe. It will be equipped with Ku- and Ka-band capacity. Telenor said the deci- sion to develop Thor 7 was down in part to the growing HD TV market in central and eastern Europe and the fact that 3D TV could become increasingly important in the future. “One degree West is now a major hotspot for the region. It provides DTH to 2.7 million homes and cable distribution to about a fur- ther six million homes,” says Leiv Svenning, head of broadcast services, CEE at Telenor Satellite. “The two major regional DTH oper- ators, UPC Direct and Digi TV, are users of 1° West and satellite will remain a key driver in the TV market. It is considered to offer a supe-
in the market such as the general drive towards digitization: “There is also a time lag as investments work through the system.” While consolidation has yet to take a firm grip on the CEE region, Romania is starting to see some signs, with Boom TV being acquired by Romtelecom earlier this year. However, Svenning points out that other markets have not witnessed the same rate of growth as Romania, which was one of the first countries in the region to introduce DTH. “Romania adopted DTH rather early for the region and experienced a large number of entrants; the country is now undergoing a phase of consol- idation. But we are also seeing growth in countries that have not grown at such a pace. I do not believe that anybody anticipates a return to the rate of growth previously experi- enced in the region but that is not to say that new platforms will not be launched.”
“You need consumers who can afford to pay for HD. The quicker the economic situation improves, the quicker our customers will
launch more channels.” Jean-Phillipe Gillet, Intelsat
rior service compared to the fragmented cable industry. Against this backdrop it is unsurpris- ing that TSBc has chosen to fly a payload for the CEE market on its next satellite.”
Future growth
Telenor’s board agreeing to Thor 7 despite the economic difficulties faced by Europe says a lot about the confidence the operator has for future pay TV growth. According to Svenning, while growth might have slowed in some markets, in others, digitization and the addi- tion of new channels and services continues. “Given the recession and the negative impact upon some exchange rates, the pay TV market in the region weathered the economic storm relatively well,” he says. “Several of the economies experienced considerable drops in demand for goods and services but many of the players in the TV market continued to grow, although those with advertising based business models faced the biggest struggle,” he says. Svenning believes the economic downturn is being mitigated by other factors
Global satellite operator Intelsat also has a considerable business in the CEE region, tak- ing additional capacity at the 1° West position it shares with Telenor and providing broadcast services to DTH operators including Digi TV and Vivacom. According to Jean-Philippe Gillet, Intelsat’s regional vice-president, Europe and Middle East, despite the econom- ic problems, the company has seen significant growth in the region, and he believes there is still plenty of room left for expansion. “We believe that this market still has a lot of poten- tial for growth, both in terms of programme offerings for existing consumers and for new DTH launches in certain markets,” he says. “Our video neighbourhood at 1° West is a lead- ing orbital slot in the region with a very high penetration, and we are working on strength- ening that position.” Gillet admits that some customers have been more “prudent” in their approach to capacity requirements as a result of the eco- nomic downturn, but says there are plenty of operators preparing to launch new channels. He also believes we are likely to see some new platform additions in the short term. “It is
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