Connected TV grows in Poland
Connected TVs and the services they offer are becoming increasingly popular in Poland. Speaking to Gazeta Prawna, Marcin Bolbot, director of sales and marketing, Samsung Electronics Poland, estimated that 35% of set sales in the country this year would be of connected TVs, up from 15% last year. Samsung itself expects its sales this year to be double the 150,000 achieved in 2010. The total number of connected TVs in the country already stands at over 300,000, and leading broadcasters such as Polsat (ipla) and TVN (VoD.Onet.pl), as well the cable operators UPC Polska (UPC Live TV) and Multimedia Polska (mmTV.pl) are providing services over the internet. In the case of Polsat, it is expected to introduce a new widget for Samsung TVs giving access to its movie library sometime this week.

NEWSLINE

Russian pay-TV gains subs
The number of homes receiving pay-TV services in Russia rose by nearly 2 million in 2010, according to a study produced by the local company DISCOVERY Research Group. The findings of the study, published by AKTR and RBK, focus on the main pay-TV market segments and tend to contradict those of studies by other companies, among them iKS Consulting and J’son & Partners Consulting. They say that the number of pay-TV homes in Russia at the end of 2010 stood at 16.3 million, up from 14.5 million a year earlier. Cable accounted for 67% of the market, equivalent to around 10 million homes, followed by satellite with 31% (around 6 million homes). The number of IPTV subscribers meanwhile stood at around 500,000. Russia’s pay-TV market is dominated by six companies – Tricolor TV, Comstar-UTS, ER-Telecom, Multiregion (now part of MTS), NTV-Plus and Svyazinvest – which between them account for 65-70% of subscribers.

Cyfrowy Polsat shares snapped up
Cyfrowy Polsat’s founders Zygmunt Solorz-Zak and Heronim Ruta have raised PLN1.35 billion (€337.8 million) through the sale of a 25% stake in the company. Local reports indicate investors paid PLN15.7 per share for the 86.1 million on offer. Solorz-Zak, who still retains a majority stake in Cyfrowy Polsat, now plans to invest the proceeds in his telco activities, which are focused the use of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. He is also moving closer to acquiring the Polkomtel, which operates the mobile network Plus, in a deal that could be worth around PLN18 billion

RCS&RDS buys football rights
RCS&RDS has reached an agreement with the Romanian Professional Football League (LPF) for the outstanding media rights to the 2011-14 seasons. According to ZF, the company has agreed to pay €45 million (€55.8 million) for the rights, which were offered in a total of six packages. An auction held this April saw RCS&RDS buy one package for €13.2 million, excluding VAT, while Romtelecom (€12.9 million) and Antena 1 (€10.5 million) paid for two other packages, leaving six more unsold. RCS&RDS then announced it would not participate in any further tender unless LPF changed its pricing and the method of packaging the rights. In the event, it became the only bidder for the six packages, which were put up for sale for €7.5 million. RCS&RDS is the leading cable and DTH operator in Romania, with close to 3 million subscribers to its pay-TV services.

More IPTV for Croatia
The Croatian alternative carrier H1 Telekom plans to launch an IPTV service this autumn. Quoted in Liderpress, its deputy head Petar Cavlovic said that the move would be a serious step forward and a blow to the competition. He added that unlike existing services, the one operated by H1 Telekom, which is currently in a beta testing phase, would have a number of interactive features and be effectively the most modern on the market. However, he refused to provide any details about investment in the project, infrastructure and set-top boxes. H1 Telekom was established in 2004 and has its headquarters in Spilt, with offices in Zagreb. Osijek and Rijeka. Croatia already has one of the most dynamic IPTV markets in Central and Eastern Europe, with the incumbent T-HT, the leading provider of services, claiming over 300,000 subscribers.

Videomore proves to be a hit
The Russian social TV network Videomore has attracted 10 million unique visitors in its first six months of operation, with an average viewing time of 30 minutes. The service, which is operated by CTC Media and gives access to free content from its three Russian channels CTC, Domashny and DTV, made its debut on December 16 last year with a view to capturing a share of the country’s rapidly expanding internet advertising market, forecast to be worth over $200 million (€140.9 million) in 2015. Its video library currently consists of 5,000 titles, while the number of video views per day stands at 125,000. Videomore now has 13,000 registered users.

UPC ramps up Romanian price war
UPC Romania has introduced a new triple play with prices starting for as little as RON50 (€11.8) a month. According to ZF, RON50 will buy subscribers a package known as Horizon, which includes 101 digital TV channels and 10 Mbps Fiber Power internet access, with the offer being available until the end of August for those who sign one-year contracts. Paying an additional RON10 a month will get viewers the Riviera package, which includes 98 digital TV channels, 10 Mbps Fiber Power and free phone calls to national fixed networks in off-peak time. For RON72 a month, they can receive Riviera (though with 101 channels, including Cinestar, for free), 10 Mbps Fiber Power and the 3Play HD package, which includes a HD mediabox.

New milestone for Russian cableco
The Russian cable operator ER-Telecom has acquired its 300,000th subscriber in Samara. The company began providing services in the city in 2004 and as of the beginning of this accounted for 54% and 66% of its broadband and cable markets respectively. ER-Telecom employs FTTH to deliver its cable (Divan TV), internet (Dom.ru) and telephony (GorSyaz) services to over 3 million subscribers in 31 Russian cities. It currently accounts for 8.3% of all cable subscribers in the country and 8.5% of those receiving broadband internet access.

Vivacom looks to the future
The Bulgarian incumbent telco Vivacom (BTC) plans to invest some BGN600 million (€306.7 million) on its infrastructure over the next three years, according to Bernard Moscheni, the company’s executive head. Quoted in Sofia Echo, he added that the actual size of the investment would depend on Vivacom’s performance between now and 2014. A significant part of the investment will be channelled towards the development of Vivacom’s fibre-optic network, which should reach 1 million homes by 2014. The company aims by then to be offering its subscribers quad play services. Vivacom’s interests include Vivacom TV, a DTH platform it has operated since last summer. Mobiltel is developing into one of its biggest competitors in the fixed line segment.

Hungary implements TV frequency changes
The Hungarian national transmissions company Antenna Hungária has announced that it will undertake frequency changes concerning 15 analogue terrestrial TV relay stations this summer. The first phase of the process, which will assist the digitisation process, will affect the public broadcaster’s first channel (two sites) and national commercial station TV2 (four sites), mostly in the north east of the country. The FTA DTT service MinDig TV and its sister pay DTT service MinDig TV Extra, both of which are operated by Antenna Hungária, will continue to be available on unchanged frequencies.

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A smart future
It may be still early days, but connected TV is undoubtedly starting to take off in Central and Eastern Europe.

Certainly in Poland, one of the region’s largest markets, the figures are already starting to look impressive. Figures published in the local press say that there are now 300,000 connected TVs in the country and that they will account for 35% of total TV set sales this year.

Alongside this growth in connected TV take-up we are seeing a raft of new and extremely important content agreements. Just a few days ago it was reported that the Russian ISP and 4G network provider Yota had entered into a three-year agreement securing 2,000 hours of BBC content for PCs, smart phones and connected TVs. This content will now become available on Yota Play, a new service on Samsung Smart TV expected to make its debut in July.

Furthermore, it has been reported that Samsung Smart TV has extended its cooperation with ipla, the interactive media platform operated by Redefine, a subsidiary of Poland’s Polsat. Redefine regards Samsung as a strategic partner and will be introducing a widget on its sets produced this year that will give access to the platform’s iplaFILM channel, which currently consists of paid-for titles.

However, Redefine is also working closely with other players in the connected TV space. Just this May, for instance, it announced that ipla was being made available on sets produced by LG Electronics. Panasonic, Sony and of course Samsung are already working with ipla and are soon expected to be joined by Philips.

Leading broadcasters in general across Central and Eastern Europe are now starting to offer their content over the internet and the trend is only likely to intensify. CME, for instance, launched its VOD portal Voyo in the Czech Republic earlier this year and will shortly roll it out to its five other markets across the region. Less than a month ago it struck a key agreement with Warner Bros giving viewers access to around 150 movie titles.

All in all, viewers in the region can look forward to a much more rewarding TV experience in the months and years that lie ahead.

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