[Satellite News 10-25-10] MYtv’s plans to launch a new DTH platform in Ukraine by the middle of this year have been held up due to software issues in the platform’s set-top boxes, MYtv Chairman Ayal Rosenfarb told Satellite News.
    While the commercial launch of the service could end up being delayed by as long as nine months, Rosenfarb said he is optimistic the operator can make up for lost time. “We already have around 5,000 people who have made a commitment to the service. We targeted to have 5,000 on this list and we achieved it. According to some marketing research we have done, we have estimated that the Ukraine DTH pay-TV market will have two million subscribers in 2012.”
    With a population of over 46 million people and with low pay-TV penetration, Rosenfarb knows that satellite could have a huge impact in the Ukraine. “It is a very big country. The land is almost twice the size of Poland,” said Rosenfarb. “The cable infrastructure is very poor. We definitely believe in terms of numbers of subscribers, we intend to be one of the largest DTH operators in Central and Eastern Europe. I definitely believe ultimately we will expand our services in surrounding markets. We definitely plan to be a major pay-TV player in Central and Eastern Europe. We are looking to maybe penetrate in ex-Soviet Union countries, but not Russia.”
    MYtv will not be the only platform looking to target the Ukraine. Rosenfarb believes the market can sustain a number of operators, but doesn’t see the region as a fiercely competitive one. “We have discovered that there is huge demand right now, and there is an opportunity for all of the DTH players. We are only the second licensed DTH operator in Ukraine. There is not much cable in this market either.”
    For capacity, MYtv has selected Intelsat’s Thor 6 satellite, which covers most of Europe. MYtv will use the DVB-S2 standard and MPEG4 compression for both SD and HD content. The platform will fully ready for HD and even 3-D. The service, when it launches, will likely have a strong HD component. “There are more than 1.3 million HD enabled TV sets in Ukraine. Currently, the market is not able to meet the demand for HD. We will have four HD channels at launch. We are already in discussions with other HD channel providers and we definitely plan to increase this number dramatically. We want to add additional channels every quarter,” said Rosenfarb.
    But, regulatory issues in the Ukraine may prevent MYtv from expanding its content portfolio as quickly as it would like to. “I don’t think we will have 20 HD channels in the first year. This is a broadcasting rights issue in Ukraine. While we may want to take 20 channels, there are regulatory issues which could impede this,” said Rosenfarb.
    MYtv also is unsure when the new platform would turn profits for the operator. Rosenfarb said that the company would follow business models that have proven to be successful in other markets. “The Ukraine is a very low ARPU market. We have invested heavily in our platform and we are trying to give households most of the features they would see on the BSkyB platform in the United Kingdom. We are the first operator in central and Eastern Europe running an integrated HD PVR service and we are going to launch this service with two packages.”