CEE TV industry news stories

Chris Dziadul, September 5, 2024

 

Czech success for Warner TV

Warner TV now reaches almost 800,000 viewers in the Czech Republic. According to Atmedia, which sells commercial airtime on the channel, the figure refers to viewers aged 4+ who watched at least three minutes at a time over the period April-August. Warner TV was launched as a terrestrial TV channel in the Czech Republic in April and it has contributed to an overall increase in Atmedia’s share of the TV market. While last year it only reached a 6% viewership share in some months, this year it has reached this in every single month and in some instances even approached 7%.

 

Competition concerns over T-2 sale

Slovenia’s Electronic Communications Council (SEK) has called on the competent authorities in the country to thoroughly study all aspects of the proposed takeover of T-2 by Telemach Slovenia, including its impact on competition, pricing, service quality, investment and innovation. In its view, the sale would result in a drastic reduction in competition and have serious consequences for the Slovenian economy and consumers, reducing the number of operators in the electronic communications market from four to three. Last month Telemach Slovenia, which is part of United Group, signed signed a share purchase agreement with Garnol for the acquisition of business shares in T-2, securing at least 98.06% ownership in the company.

 

Petr Král to head prima+

Petr Král has been appointed the director for the VOD and FAST at the Czech Republic’s Prima Group. As such he will head the streaming service prima+, which in the 19 months since its launch has secured 1.2 million registered users and over 172,000 paying customers. In total, prima+ has shown 148 million played videos to date. Král replaces Josef Benes, the head of VOD services for Prima, who is leaving by mutual consent.

 

Natalija Gorscak to lead Slovenian pubcaster

Natalija Gorscak has officially been appointed as the new head of public broadcaster RTV Slovenija. She received the votes of 11 members of the council of RTV Slovenija, while her main opponent, the current director of Radio Slovenija, Mirko Stular, received only four votes. Meanwhile the third candidate, Boris Tomasic, received no votes. Gorscak, who in the past also served as director of TV Slovenija, will serve as chairman of the board of RTV Slovenija for the next four years.

 

Grazyna Gray joins PlumResearch

Grazyna Gray has been appointed the director of business development at the data insights form PlumResearch. Gray, an experienced media and entertainment sales executive, will look after Szczecin (Poland)-based Plum’s commercial relationships and activities, ensuring that clients benefit from their extensive cutting-edge analytics. She has previously worked as director of international sales and affiliate partnerships for Playboy TV Europe, strategy and business development director for Cinemoi, affiliate sales and marketing director for Travel Channel International and distribution manager for The Walt Disney Company, among others. Commercial partnerships role was her most recent engagement at Informa Tech within its Media & Entertainment vertical.

 

Polish licence change for Canal+

Poland’s National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) has approved a request by Canal+ Polska to change the name of its channel Canal+ Family to Canal+ 360. It has also changed the sports programming requirement of the channel to at least 20% between 06.00 and 23.00 daily and revoked a previous licence for Canal+ Polska to distribute a satellite-delivered channel named Canal+ 360.

 

BBC Player expands reach in Poland

BBC Studios’ multi-genre VOD service BBC Player has launched on CDA Premium in Poland. As a result, CDA Premium subscribers are now able to stream curated content selected solely for the platform, as well as shows from BBC Studios’ linear channels BBC Brit, BBC Earth, BBC Lifestyle, BBC First and CBeebies. This follows the launch of BBC Player on Canal+ in June 2022 and online streaming service Play Now and Play Now TV.  CDA Premium is operated by the group CDA and along with its sister service CDA TV had 655,000 subscribers as of the end of Q1 this year.

 

Ukrainian platforms add premium content

Ukraine’s Volia has added content from Paramount+ to its Volia TV streaming service. Access to the content, initially consisting of 115 movies, is free of charge to customers already receiving Volia TV, for which subscription fees start at UAH100 (€2.18) a month.  Separately, Kyivstar TV has added series from HBO to its line-up.

 

4iG to enter North Macedonia

Hungary’s 4iG Group and the North Macedonian government have signed an MoU to accelerate the digital transformation of the West Balkan country’s economy and infrastructure. It outlines the opportunities for 4iG to enter the telecom market and identifies strategic target areas of future development of telecommunications services and infrastructure in North Macedonia.

Separately, 4iG has posted net revenues of HUF336,107 million (€855.8 million), up from a modified figure of HUF283,760 million a year earlier. Its net loss after tax was HUF23,289 million, as opposed to a profit of HUF13,289 million in H1 2023.

 

New sports channel for Ukraine

A new channel named Megogo Sport has launched in Ukraine. Operated by Megogo, it is distributed terrestrially on the national DVB-T2 multiplex MX-7 and plans to offer viewers over 200 hours of sports content a year. According to a local report, its output will be mainly focused on European football.

 

 

 

 

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© Chris Dziadul, 2024