New DTH platform for Bosnia
Bosnia & Herzegovina is likely to see the launch of its first locally operated DTH platform in early September. Quoting unofficial sources, Teve says that it will be known as Team Sat and distributed by Eutelsat at 16 degrees East. The new platform will initially offer viewers seven Bosnian channels, including BN Televizja, FACE tv, Al Jazeera Balkans and three from Hayat TV, among them Hayat Folk TV. They will be joined by two channels from Serbia, along with several other services from the region. Team Sat is expected to use Viaccess conditional access from its launch and further details about the platform should become available by the end of this month. Although Team Sat will be the first locally operated DTH platform in Bosnia & Herzegovina, satellite services in the country are already provided by Serbia Broadband’s pan-regional operation Total TV. The Mid Europa Partners (MEP)-backed company is also a leading player the country’s cable industry.

NEWSLINE

Samsung reveals Polish HbbTV stategy
Samsung has committed itself to the introduction of HbbTV in Poland. Speaking to HbbTV.pl, Grzegorz Stanisz, senior product manager, Samsung Electronics, said that the company is currently carrying out extensive tests on various aspects of the technology in Warsaw. These tests, for which there is no time frame, are taking into account the requirements and specifications of all current and potential Polish broadcasters of HbbTV content. He added that from a technical standpoint Samsung was ready to deploy HbbTV in Poland and also cited the example of Germany and the Czech Republic, where HbbTV was already well established. Stanisz in addition said that around 33% of all Samsung sets sold in Poland since the start of the year had been connected to the internet and that the company will shortly be meeting with the Polish public broadcaster TVP to discuss HbbTV.

Time Warner ups CME stake
Central European Media Enterprises (CME) has sold around 9.9 million class A shares to Time Warner and 2 million to Ronald S. Lauder for a combined fee of approximately $89 million (€70.36 million). As a result of the deal, Time Warner has increased its ownership in CME to 40% on a diluted basis. CME has broadcast interests in six Central and East European countries. They are supported by its content and distribution division, Media Pro Entertainment, as well as its New Media division, which operates the pan-regional VOD service Voyo.

Russia prepares for multiscreen
Several Russian operators are planning to launch multiscreen services in the second half of this year. AKTR and Vedomosti report that the first one to do so will be Rostelecom next month, followed by NTV-Plus in August and Megafon in either September or October. They will be joined by MTS in the third quarter and Vimpelcom by the end of the year. All will use the same business model, under which their existing subscribers will be able to watch channels on their TV screens, computers and mobile devices and pay for it with a single account. However, new customers opting for multiscreen will only be able to receive channels on a PC and tablet. There is also the possibility that operators may offer their multiscreen services to third parties, though with less content than to their own customers.

Challenging times for Czech tower company
The transition to digital broadcasting, along with a difficult economic climate, has hit the Czech national transmission company CRa financially. According to E15, its sales fell by CZK185 million (€7.26 million) to CZK2.247 billion last year. Although CRa has not provided a figure for its profit, it is known to have amounted to CZK141 million in 2010. Furthermore, its revenues for this year are projected to fall by 11% and not reach last year’s level until sometime in 2015. CRa operates three of the country’s four DTT multiplexes, with the fourth having recently been acquired by Digital Broadcasting from Telefónica O2. Digital Broadcasting is expected to emerge as a strong competitor to CRa, offering capacity on its multiplex for 30% less than that charged by CRa for the third multiplex.

Changes, growth in Polish on demand market
The Polish DTH platform n has added a new premium movie offer to its on demand service nVOD. Known as Kino Swiat (Movie World), it consists of 20 titles, divided into action, horror, comedy, drama, kids, documentary and music genres, with subscribers being offered around 40 hours of unlimited access to programming each week. Kino Swiat costs PLN6 (€1.40) a month to receive and joins a growing list of services available on nVOD that includes TVN Player, HBO OD, National Geographic and Baby TV. Separately, the number of online on demand services is set to grow still further in Poland. Rzeczpospolita reports that following the launch of StrefaVoD.pl by Add Media Entertainment last week, StockWatch.pl will give a debut to Vodeon.pl this autumn. The value of the online on demand market in Poland, which includes such services as ipla, iplex and TVN Player, is currently put at PLN80 million but is expected to grow to around PLN300 million in the next three years.

Romtelecom clarifies TVR sports deal
Romtelecom has issue a public statement regarding the partnership between its thematic channel Dolce Sport and the Romanian public broadcaster TVR. In it, the telco says that it has acquired the broadcasting rights to a number of key international sporting rights, including Euro 2012, “in order to provide its TV customers with rich, relevant and top quality content and services.” It entered into negotiations with TVR in 2010 after the latter publicly announced its intention to sub-licence several sports competitions and sees the value of the partnership as a fair market one, considering that Dolce Soort only bought a small part of the content owned by TVR. Furthermore, negotiations held on June 16 had a positive outcome, allowing Dolce Sports’ 1.2 million subscribers to watch the Euro 2012 matches and with distribution of the matches between TVR and Dolce Sport approved by UEFA.

ProfMedia restructures TV assets
The Russian holding company ProfMedia is combining all its TV interests into one group. According to Kommersant, the channels TV3 and MTV and holding ProfMedia TV will now form part of a single structure and be headed by Nikolai Kartozya, formerly a director at NTV. ProfMedia’s interests extend into radio, film production and distribution, theatrical film distribution, magazine publishing and several internet brands. It is owned by Interros, one of Russia’s largest private investment groups.

Lithuanian HD rights dispute grows
Controversy is mounting in Lithuania over the HD rights to the Champions League and London Olympic Games. According to VZ, pay-TV operators are angry that the national public broadcaster LRT sold the rights exclusively to the incumbent telco TEO LT, which operates both an IPTV and DTT service under the brand name Gala. They argue that the transaction between LRT and TEO LT took place secretly, with no other pay-TV companies being given the opportunity to buy the rights. LRT has countered by saying that its actions were fully within the law.

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CONTENT

Chello rebrands movie channels
Chello Central Europe is rebranding its two movie channels Filmmuzeum and Zone Romantica to Film Mania and Film Café. Commenting on the move, the company’s CEO Levente Malnay said: “The new brands will effectively reflect the heritage of the two channels that is engaging and innovative. Film Mania will feature movies from Hollywood and the biggest studios in the world while retaining the values of Filmmuzeum. Film Café will continue offering high-quality female focussed entertainment and relaxation. Our goal is to offer varied, fresh programming to meet the demands of Hungarian viewers, in line with the cultural values.” The new look to the two channels, which are carried on all the major cable networks in Hungary, will be unveiled on July 2. The will premier 60 new films next month alone.

More channels For TV Nova
CET21, which holds the licence for the leading Czech broadcaster TV Nova, has secured the right to operate two more channels. According to Parabola, the country’s Council for Radio and TV Broadcasting (RRTV) has granted the company a licence for Nova News, which will be distributed over the internet for 18 hours daily and offer viewers a mixture of news, current affairs and entertainment shows produced in house. The second channel, which previous had the working title Channel 5 but has now been renamed TV Fanda, will be distributed terrestrially and via cable – though there is also the possibility it might be carried by the DTH platform Skylink – and target male viewers with mostly sports, dramas, documentaries, action, crime and sci-fi. TV Fanda will be on air for 18-20 hours daily and has to start broadcasting by August 23. TV Nova, which is owned by Central European Media Enterprises (CME), already has Nova Sport, Nova Cinema and MTV in its channel portfolio.

3D movies debut in Latvia
The Latvian incumbent telco Lattelecom has begun to offer 3D movies on an on demand basis. In a statement, the company says that subscribers to its Lattelecom TV service are being offered movies in the format for LVL2.1 (€3) a day. Although initially broadcast in their original language, they will in the future be shown with Latvian and Russian soundtracks. Lattelecom adds that the company’s turnover fell by 2.4% to LVL137.6 million last year, while its earnings rose by 7.8% to LVL21 million. Its investment in 2011 amounted to LVL21.6 million, which was less than the LVL31 million in the previous year as the company had by then almost completed its fibre optic network plan. Lattelecom expects to see growth in both its turnover and profit this year. It will also continue to make significant investments in its fibre optic network and TV services, the latter of which are already received by over 230,000 (pay) viewers and an unspecified number watching FTA programming.

Ukrainian first for Volia
The leading Ukrainian cable operator Volia has launched what it describes as the country’s first premium movie channel in HD for cable TV subscribers. Known as Volia Kino HD, it is being made available to Volia HD and Kino package customers in nine cities including the capital, Kiev. However, those in Kiev also have the option of receiving a time-shifted version of the channel called Volia Kino HD+1. Volia Kino HD is ad free and will initially air around 50 new movies a month. However, in the long term it plans to offer classics of world cinema from the 1980s until today. It is also planning to add to its catalogue of children’s content and is in negotiations with a number of distributors.

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CHRIS DZIADUL REPORTS

HbbTV heads East

Warsaw will play host to an important conference on HbbTV on July 4.

Readers of Broadband TV News will be aware that only last month we held a business briefing on connected TV, organised jointly with Level 3, in the Polish capital. It was there that we became aware for the first time of the major progress that is currently being made by the company 4vod, along with broadcasters such as TVP, to introduce hybrid television into Poland.

We have since been offered, and accepted, the opportunity to act as a patron to the upcoming conference, entitled HbbTV Summit Poland.

Prior to this year, there had been little if any mention of HbbTV in Central and Eastern Europe aside from perhaps in the Czech Republic, where the public broadcaster Ceske Televize (CT) had discussed plans to introduce a HbbTV app for Teletext HD, distributed via satellite, this spring. CT has since gone on to launch the Teletext app, along with ones for Euro 2012 and the World Ice Hockey Championship, and become a key player in the introduction of HbbTV services in the region.

In Poland, on the other hand, the first HbbTV tests got under way as recently as this March, with the channel TVN HD distributed via DVB-T from the Palace of Culture in Warsaw. Since then, we have seen TVP launch an HbbTV app for Euro 2012 that was used by an encouraging number of 4,200 viewers on the first day. It also announced plans to launch further HbbTV apps in the near future.

Furthermore, as recently as this week, Samsung has revealed that it is currently undertaking HbbTV tests in Warsaw and will be meeting shortly with TVP.

Besides discussing these beginnings of HbbTV in Poland, the conference on July 4 will include important presentations from the HbbTV Consortium and ProSieben/Sat 1, as well as a number of manufacturers. It will also feature panel discussions entitled HbbTV versus smart TV and The future of hybrid television in Poland.

HbbTV Summit Poland will be covered in detail by Broadband TV News, which is also following developments elsewhere in the CEE region with interest.

For further details, please go to: http://hbbtvsummit.com/en/

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Editor: Chris Dziadul +44 20 8995 1287

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