Bulgaria's Blizoo launches OTT service with ANEVIA

Blizoo Chooses ANEVIA To Launch Its New Multiscreen Service

PARIS, France — ANEVIA announces that Blizoo, the largest cable company in Bulgaria, has selected ViaMotion technology for the launch of Live Blizoo, its new OTT multi-screen service.

Available to over 350,000 subscribers, Live Blizoo offers close to thirty SD and HD channels on its dedicated portal, which can be viewed live on smartphones, laptops, or tablets. At the heart of the OTT infrastructure deployed by STI networks, the ViaMotion Plus solution prepares and delivers video streams to all subscribers. The user experience also benefits from Adaptive Streaming technologies that adjust the image quality of videos to the available bandwidth, no matter what device is used.

For Blizoo, it was important to deploy agnostic technologies that could interact with its entire ecosystem, with the ability to integrate with the middleware, rights management system, and Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB) decoders, as well as Vector encoders. And as storage is an important element in such deployment, the ability to integrate Anevia OTT solution with the most common storage solutions on the market was a critical factor in the final selection.

“Not only our own subscribers, but all Bulgarian mobile customers can now access a new way to watch television. Just by subscribing, they can now easily access our video content portal whenever and wherever they want in Bulgaria,” explained Blizoo’s CTO, Shteryo Stefanov Badalov. “With ViaMotion, we have a solid base that will leave us leeway to plan out the development of our OTT and multi-screen strategies.”

“We are proud that our technology and expertise have been put to use for an innovative project,” explained Laurent Lafarge, CEO of Anevia. The telecommunications market, and the OTT market in particular, are very dynamic in Eastern Europe. ViaMotion is unquestionably fit to provide useful technological solutions to operators that want to diversify their product lines and develop innovative multi-screen services.”

Noted for its performance and flexibility, ViaMotion is a full line of multi-screen OTT solutions designed to enable operators, broadcasters, and content owners worldwide to deploy cloud DVR services and multi-screen services.

Telekom Austria buys key cable operator

Telekom Austria has acquired a 100% stake in the cable operator blizoo Macedonia from Sweden’s EQT for an unknown fee.

Blizoo Macedonia is one of the leading cable operators in the country, with 63,000 subscribers, of whom 47,000 receive broadband services.

Its revenues in 2013 amounted to around €10 million.

Telekom Austria, which will finance the acquisition by existing cash flow, sees the developments as a significant step in its convergence strategy.

Once the transaction, which is subject to merger control clearance, is approved, it will allow Vip operator and blizoo to offer bundled fixed and mobile services in Macedonia and complement the Group’s existing convergent footprint in Austria, Bulgaria and Croatia.

According to Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO of Telekom Austria Group and A1, “The takeover of blizoo Macedonia allows us to offer the full scale of communications services in the fourth country within our group and is a step forward in the execution of our successful convergence strategy.”

Nikola Ljushev, CEO of Vip operator, added: “This move opens a broad range of exciting opportunities to Vip operator, the second largest mobile operator in the Republic of Macedonia, by bringing together complementary assets and capabilities for future success. We are very pleased that after years of strong performance in the mobile-only segment, we are stepping forward into fix-mobile convergence, that will ultimately bring even greater benefits to Vip’s and blizoo’s customers.”

Kiril Trendafilov, CEO blizoo Macedonia, continued: “It is great that we are becoming part of Telekom Austria Group as we know this will make us stronger and will ensure sustainable value growth for our shareholders. We are looking forward to sharing experiences and working together with Telekom Austria Group, in particular with Vip operator, in order to provide advanced products and services to our customers.”

EQT still remains in control of blizoo, the leading cable operator in Bulgaria.

The Macedonian deal is expected to close in the third quarter.

Blizoo: a progress report---from Broadband TV News

Bulgaria’s leading cable operator Blizoo has spoken exclusively to Broadband TV Newsabout the progress it has made to date and its plans for the future.

Acquired by the Swedish fund EQT V in October 2009, it underwent a huge restructuring in 2010/11 and today finds itself in a strong position in what is a highly competitive pay-TV market.

In that market, which by various estimates numbers between 2 million and 2.5 million homes, Bulsatcom, Blizoo and Vivacom occupy the top three spots, with 900,000, 400,000 and 200,000 subscribers respectively, M-Tel claiming fourth spot with 60,000.

According to Vassil Shtonov, Blizoo’s strategy and content officer, the operator currently offers its viewers up to 150 channels, 25 for which are in HD, but has the capacity to provide up to 300 channels. Although 86% of its subscriber base is digital, its analogue offer remains of a very high quality.

Blizoo’s network is also 92% DOCSIS 3.0-enabled, which is higher than any other network in Bulgaria.

While it offers internet access of up 150 Mbps to its broadband subscribers, in practical terms, due to limitations in reception equipment, most customers are not ready to receive more than 100 Mbps.

Shtonov added that Blizoo’s strategy is to focus on its basic offer; OTT (specifically by providing HBO Go); simple boxes, charging customers for some convenience; and catch-up.

Although Blizoo currently offers a limited form of catch up and the feature is supported by its STBs, the operator would like to launch a full service. What holds it back is TV rights, rather than the technology.

Commenting on the Bulgarian market in general, Shtonov said that the company has made a conscious decision not to enter the price war that is currently taking place between other pay-TV companies. The bundles it offers are the best and its subscriber base is growing.

Shtonov also said that Blizoo has managed to reduce its churn by a third. Its plans currently include the development of an app that will allow smartphones to be used as fixed phones at home.

Blizoo is also the leading cable operator in Macedonia, where its footprint reaches a third of the country and it has a 50% share of the pay-TV market. Within Bulgaria itself, Blizoo’s footprint is 50%.

Although the operator has a 15-18% pay-TV market share in Bulgaria as a whole, the figure rises to 34% in its footprint.