Romania may welcome a new DTH platform after a Eutelsat representative in the country was quoted telling local website Mediafax that a pilot DTH project was currently underway, distributing some 30 Romanian TV channels.
The representative reportedly…
Romania may welcome a new DTH platform after a Eutelsat representative in the country was quoted telling local website Mediafax that a pilot DTH project was currently underway, distributing some 30 Romanian TV channels.
The representative reportedly said that, at the end of July, a request was made to the State Office for Inventions and Trademarks (OSIM) for the registration of the name Freesat. The uplink services for the project are provided by Hungarian company eVision, reports wrote.
A Eutelsat spokeswoman confirmed that some channel testing is currently ongoing but declined to comment further.
The Romanian market is already populated with five DTH platforms, although consolidation is now on its way.
In early April, telecoms incumbent Romtelecom, which controls Dolce, signed an agreement to buy local DTH platform Akta Satelit from Digital Cable Systems (DCS).
The deal itself came just a couple of weeks after Romtelecom said it agreed to buy another Romanian DTH broadcaster, insolvent Boom TV, for E7.32m plus VAT.
More recently, in late May, Romania’s largest cableco RCS&RDS was reportedly looking to acquire the government’s 46% stake in Romtelecom.
A deal between Romtelecom and RCS&RDS, which controls DTH platform Digi TV, would have seen the latter hold a substantial share of the Romanian DTH market.
But on 1 July, Greek operator OTE, which controls 54% of the Romanian incumbent, and the Romanian ministry of communications and Information agreed to list Romtelecom within the next 12 months instead.
Besides Digi, Dolce, Akta Satelit and Boom TV, Romania is also home to Focus Sat, owned by cableco UPC Romania.