Central and eastern European telcos “looking to DTH”

Competition amongst DTH providers in central and eastern Europe shows no signs of slowing down and may even be intensifying as telcos look to enter the market, according to Jean-Philippe Gillet, regional vice-president, Europe and Middle East sales at satellite operator Intelsat.

Speaking on a panel session at Informa Telecoms and Media’s Digital TV Central and Eastern Europe conference in Bucharest, Gillet said that Intelsat still saw “potential for launches even in markets where there are a lot of players” and noted that the much-predicted consolidation of the sector has not so far taken place. “There is fierce price competition between players right now and at some point that will have an impact on the smaller ones,” said Gillet. The focus on low-cost offers meant that HD had yet to really take off across the region, and he said he believed this would change. However, he predicted that growth will also come from telcos entering the market with DTH offers that are designed primarily to tie their existing subscribers in to fixed contracts rather than as profit centres in their own right.

“In eastern Europe we see a lot of telcos in DTH or that want to be active in DTH,” he said. “They don’t have the same business model as a normal DTH operator, so they put price pressure on the [existing] operators. We see growth potential but we also see that the market will change drastically.”