Russian technology provider GS Group has announced plans to launch Myanmar’s first mass satellite pay-TV platform with an undisclosed local partner.
The project was unveiled alongside an inter-governmental Russian-Myanmar commission for trade and…
Russian technology provider GS Group has announced plans to launch Myanmar’s first mass satellite pay-TV platform with an undisclosed local partner.
The project was unveiled alongside an inter-governmental Russian-Myanmar commission for trade and economic cooperation, which included Alexey Ulyukayev, Russia’s Minister of Economic Development.
It comes as the privately-held, Switzerland-headquartered group prepares to start offering commercial services for Bangladesh’s first domestic DTH platform by the end of the year.
Denis Budilov, GS Group’s deputy director of foreign broadcasting projects, said: “The GS Group competencies include implementing foreign broadcasting projects and their successful support based on positive experiences.
“We are ready to launch the broadcasting project in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar within a short time, which will be the first publicly available satellite TV in the country.”
A spokeswoman added that the group plans to disclose further details “closer to the beginning of 2015”.
Its Bangladesh project, a joint venture with local industrial conglomerate Beximco, was announced on 27 May 2014.
GS Group said that, with its technological support, the JV expects to net 300,000 subscribers during 2015, and an additional 400,000 customers annually.
Beximco vice chairman Salman Rahman said demand for a local DTH service is high, with the country’s roughly 160 million population currently relying on receiving signals illegally for their DTH services. There are however terrestrial TV and cable operators in Bangladesh.
Southeast Asia is an important market for GS Group. In 2012 it launched Cambodia’s first pay-TV digital platform in partnership with a local conglomerate called Royal Group of Companies.
Celebrating the service’s two-year anniversary on 15 September 2014, GS Group said One TV now covers 80% of Cambodia and has plans to expand further.
Sergey Dolgopolsky, director of GS Group’s foreign broadcasting projects, said: “One TV is the first successful experience of digital television technology from Russia to the international market.
“One TV project in Cambodia will further contribute to the substantial improvement of TV viewing quality in the country.”
The group has also singled out Pakistan as a potential market to expand into.