[Satellite News 11-10-11] Romania’s largest telco Romtelecom is looking to make more of an impact in Romania’s competitive pay-TV market. The operator, which has around 1.2 million DTH subscribers in Romania, is targeting a greater presence in the country’s television market, but Romtelecom’s Residential Segment CCO Ovidiu Ghiman believes this task will not be easy.

   “The DTH market is stagnating as it doesn’t grow organically,” Ghiman told Satellite News. “In this market, the customers are migrating from analog cable operators to digital ones, or from one DTH operator to another. Therefore, we don’t expect to see significant growth rates on this segment, but, in return, we will see more dynamic growth rates in the IPTV segment as Romtelecom’s efforts to educate the market on the benefits of this service are already paying off.”

   Ghiman admits that having an effective TV strategy is very important to the operator. The country has a population of around 22 million people and one of the most competitive DTH markets in Europe and Eastern Europe that has developed in recent years. Earlier this year, the operator completed the acquisitions of two other DTH platforms – Boom TV and Akta Satelit. Ghiman said the recent acquisitions, along with Romtelecom’s investment in its video strategy, are a real statement of intent.

“We can be one of the first two players in the video market in Romania,” he said. “As for the consolidation of the market, it is obvious that it will continue and it will target small operators, which weren’t consolidated yet. The acquisitions made by Romtelecom are the result of strategic decisions, and Boom take over is such an example, which helped us to increase our customers’ base.”

   DTH will continue to have a key role to play in Romania’s increasingly vibrant pay-TV market because small operators don’t have the resources to invest in upgrading and modernizing their networks in the rural areas, according to Ghiman, who adds that cable will remain the leading technology in Romania for some time. The recent acquisitions have given the operator a greater number of subscribers and with more content, including HD, coming online, the operator’s capacity requirements could be on the increase.

   “Romtelecom satellite capacity requirements are in line with the ones of the other providers given that similar technologies are being used. However, Romania is a market where the customers were accustomed along time with a certain number of channels and we want to compete on a similar basis, in terms of channels with the other operators. Our efforts on the television segment will focus on developing the portfolio of HD channels,” said Ghiman. “As for other services, we started since some time ago discussions about testing the interest of the market for broadband services over satellite, but we believe that given the costs of the technology and the interest of the market this is not an appropriate initiative at this point of time.”

   While the operator will likely bring more HD channels, it is less keen on 3-D TV. “In Romania, we don’t see 3-D as a significant strength in the next period of time as there are a few important steps to be taken to reach that point: the migration from basic to extra and, on the other hand, from analog to digital. Obviously, the migration to HD increased the request for satellite capacity. However, given the profile of a DTH customer in Romania, who comes mainly from small urban or rural areas, we believe the needs for HD are less sophisticated than the ones of clients who use other technologies,” said Ghiman.

   Like most telcos, the operator is developing a progressive video strategy to meet customer needs, of which DTH is only one part. As well as developing its DTH offer, the operator is expanding its video strategy in other areas. “We launched in the spring of this year www.dolcetv.ro, the first fully fledged webTV service in Romania, already attracting several hundred thousand unique visitors a month, which offers live TV, VOD (SVOD, TVOD) and catch-up TV,” said Ghiman. “We support and believe in the migration of the content towards as many as possible platforms. In this context, dolcetv.ro focuses on delivering an experience quite similar to the one we offer to our DTH and IPTV customers, but on other devices, too. For example, dolcetv.ro can be accessed from any PC, several types of smart phones or tablets.”

   However, while the operator’s video strategy is progressing, Ghiman admits the biggest challenge for all players is to convince Romanian customers that they have to pay the true value for the content and added-value services they receive. “Operators have to invest more and more in technology, equipment, content, while the customers are willing to pay only a few Euros for a basic service,” said Ghiman. “That is why we invest in education and in changing the mentalities of the Romanians – for value added services there is always a higher cost, so the price will also be higher.”