Chris Dziadul, July 25, 2024
Daniel Kretinsky to launch French TV channel
The Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky has secured a licence to operate a terrestrial TV channel in France. His company CMI France was one of 15 successful bids, with the regulator Arcom having initially received 25. CMI France plans to launch a channel named RéelsTV and its licence will be valid for 10 years. Other successful bidders for the terrestrial (TNT) licences include Canal+, BMF-TV, La Chaine Info and Paris Premiere.
Sky comes to Prague
Comcast-owned Sky has opened a development centre in the Czech capital, Prague. According to local reports it will initially employ 100 people but will within a year expand significantly, joining branches in London, Lisbon and New York. The Prague Sky centre will work on the global streaming platform and support such services as SkyShowtime, Peacock and Showmax.
Orange gains TV subs in Poland
Orange Polska ended the second quarter with a total 959,000 TV subscribers in Poland. This, according to the company in its latest set of results, was up from 937,000 in the same period last year. Although its DTH subscriber total continued to fall, down from 84,000 in Q2 2023 to 48,000 in Q2 this year, the loss was more than compensated by growth in IPTV, with take-up increasing from 853,000 to 911,000 over the same period. Of the 959,000 TV subscribers, 855,000 were convergent.
Hrvatski Telekom grows TV business
The Croatian incumbent Hrvatski Telekom (HT) had 555,000 TV subscribers in its home market as of the end of June. This was 3.8% more than the 534,000 recorded in the same period last year. Meanwhile, TV ARPU increased by 12.7% over the same period to €12.7. HT also saw growth in Montenegro, where its subsidiary CT ended June with 83,000 TV subscribers, or 3.5% more than the 80,000 total a year earlier.
Russian OTT subs top 50m
The number of subscribers to OTT services in Russia stood at 53 million as of the end of the second quarter. This, according to a study by TelecomDaily, was 44% more than the 36.7 million recorded in the same period last year. The nine leading providers of services each had over 1 million subscribers and the top five – Kinopoisk, ivi, Okko, Wink and Kion – together accounted for almost 85% of the market, with their share constantly growing. Kinopoisk had 13.2 million subscribers at the end of Q2, up from 9.2 million (+30.5%) a year earlier. Second placed ivi claimed 9.4 million (7.2 million, +29.1%), followed by Okko with 8.3 million (5 million, +66.4%), Wink with 7.8 million (4 million, 95.9%) and Kion with 6.2 million (3.3 million, +89.4%). The next largest services were Premier and Start, with 3.6 million and 2.3 million subscribers respectively. Wink had the highest share of paying subscribers (76%), followed by Kinopoisk (74%) and Okko (69%).
Terrestrial TV tender in Latvia
The Latvian regulator NEPLP has announced a tender for the distribution of three free-to-air (FTA) commercial TV channels. In a statement, NEPLP member Ieva Kalderauskas, who supervises commercial and public TV, said that a total of six FTA channels will be available in Latvia from January 2025 until December 31, 2026. Besides publicly owned LTV1 and LTV7, both of which will be in SD and HD, they will be the Ukrainian channel RADA (until at least March 8, 2025) and the three commercial channels. The latter will be required to ensure at least 80% of their programming is in the Latvian language at least 60% of their weekly broadcast time must be content created in Latvia and in the Latvian language. They will also have to provide a free archive of their broadcasts on the internet from at least January 2025 until December 31, 2026. NEPLP notes that it provides funding for free terrestrial broadcasting.
CME promotes Zoran Jankovic
Zoran Jankovic will join the management team at Central European Media Enterprises (CME) as the new group chief technology & information officer (CTIO), effective September 1. Currently holding the position of Adria CTIO for RTL and ProPlus, he will succeed Branimir Maric, who joined PPF Telecom Group as its CTIO in June. In his new role Jankovic will continue to be based out of Zagreb and Ljubljana oversee and deliver CME’s technological and IT transformation designed specifically to meet the group’s long term strategic needs as well as oversee CME technology and IT operations at the group’s stations.
M7 Group partners with BBC Studios
Canal+-owned M7 Group has concluded an agreement with BBC Studios for the satellite distribution of BBC Earth Romania via the Thor 5 satellite at 1 degree West. The agreement allows BBC Studios to provide a dedicated Romanian ad-supported version of BBC Earth to subscribers of M7-owned Focus Sat as well as third-party operators in the Romanian market. It builds upon a long-standing partnership between M7 and BBC Studios, including the Thor 5 satellite distribution of BBC Earth HD to its affiliate customers in the CEE and Turkey.
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© Chris Dziadul, 2024
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