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[Satellite TODAY Insider 05-23-11] SES Astra signed a capacity agreement with Telekom Srbija for the DTH transmission of the public TV channels RTS Sat and Radio Beograd in Serbia, the operator announced May 19.
Martin Kubacki, Vice President & Chief Regional Officer, Astra CEE told Satellite Today Insider it was a highly significant deal for the company. “It’s the first deal we have signed for DTH broadcasting via the 19.2 East orbital location in the Balkan region. This is why the deal with Telekom Srbija is of high strategic importance to us. It will help us to position 19.2 degrees East with dual reception from 23.5 degrees East as a new orbital position in this important growth region. It will enrich our channel neighborhood at 19.2 degrees East with content from this region and thus extend our reach across CEE for one of our most valuable orbital positions,” he says.
Kubacki is confident that the operator will see a strong deal flow in the CEE region. “We believe there is strong growth potential in Central and Eastern Europe. If we look at the overall trend of what telecom operators such as Deutsche Telekom are doing all over Europe, we see that they are increasingly offering their TV service via satellite. We see the same development in Eastern Europe. A good example here is T-Mobile in the Czech Republic, which broadcasts its DTH service via Astra 23.5 degrees East. We are confident that we will sign more deals like that with telecom operators as well as broadcasters that want to broadcast their channels free-to-air or contribute it into other networks,” he says. “The recent agreements we have signed for example with Towercom in Slovakia and the Czech Republic and Satellite BG in Bulgaria demonstrate the success of our expansion strategy and show that we are well on our way to further grow our reach in Central and Eastern Europe.”
The operator is confident it will also see strong growth in the number of HD channels it transmits across the region. “What you can see is that HD is becoming a broadcasting standard in the entire CEE region. More and more public and commercial broadcasters are launching HD services. At the end of 2008, the Skylink platform, which broadcasts in the Czech Republic and Slovakia via the 23.5 degrees East position, launched its first HD channel (Nova HD). Today, the operator offers nearly 20 HD channels to its customers and this is definitely not the end,” says Kubacki.
While the operator will look to do a lot of business supporting DTH initiatives in the region, the opportunities for satellite broadband are also there. “Market potential is really high as we see large areas not covered by terrestrial broadband networks. To date, we have successfully rolled out Astra2Connect in 10 Central and Eastern European countries including Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania,” says Kubacki. “Our distribution partners have brought tailor-made solutions for individuals as well as for small- and medium-sized enterprises in CEE to the market. We have also supported social development projects such as in Albania where we helped to connect post offices and schools to the Internet.”
Kubacki is convinced that satellite can help play a key role in reducing the digital divide in Europe. “I am convinced that broadband access is a catalyst for economic success in the information economy. It has therefore become increasingly important for businesses and individuals to be connected to the Internet. We are very proud that our solution can help in bridging the digital gap in the CEE region and thus contribute to the economic development in many countries. We look forward to further roll-out Astra2Connect in additional countries and win more customers for our successful satellite broadband solution,” he says.
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