[Satellite News 03-12-10] Slovak Telecom is the latest telco to use of satellite technology to bring pay-TV services to its customer base, launching a pay-TV service, Magio, via satellite in mid-January.
   “According to the availability of satellite signal throughout the Slovakia, we expect a significant increase in the number of Magio TV customers,” Slovak Telecom COO Rüdiger Schulz told Satellite News. “At the end of 2009, we had obtained more than 10,000 pre-registered customers for the service.”
   Slovak Telecom provides services under the T-Com brand and is part of the Deutsche Telekom group. For Magio, Slovak Telecom is using Spacecom’s Amos-3 satellite at 4 degrees West. The programs are broadcast using MPEG-4/DVB-S2. All of the Magio set-top boxes are HD-capable, and the service provides three HD channels to date, he said.
   Slovak Telecom already offers an IPTV service, and most of the functions of this service will be available via satellite. “Magio Sat provides all the popular functions from the IPTV version of the service including recording, stopping and rewinding the program, electronic program guide, and access to the Magio portal, which will operate through an Internet connection. Only the video-on-demand store is currently not supported,” he said.
   While he would not make any forecasts on when the service would be profitable, Schulz is confident that Magio via satellite will prove a success and that the operator will need more satellite capacity relatively quickly. “I would rather not make any statement about this year’s forecasts, but we are definitely working on projects to widen our customer base, and this will most probably result in ordering more capacity in the coming months or years,” Schulz said.
   The launch of a satellite-TV service also should cement the operator’s position within the TV market in Slovakia. “Thanks to satellite transmission, the advantages of digital television are available now to people who were dependent on lower quality or other terrestrial analog reception. We are the first Slovak multimedia operator which offers next-generation digital television via both the fixed network and satellite technology. … We are launching new functions every quarter, enlarging the channels portfolio or adding movies to our [video-on-demand] service. We would like to remain the leading multimedia company in Slovakia and to strengthen our home entertainment brand Magio on the pay-TV landscape,” he said.