BeIN buys Digiturk

Digiturk has reportedly been sold to the Qatari BeIN Media Group for a fee of between $1 billion and $1.2 billion.

Quoting the Turkish dailyStar, BGN News says that BeIN will control all the shares in the DTH platform, pending approval by the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF).

The latter originally seized 53% of Digitürk from Çukurova Holding in 2013 for non-payment of debts to the state agency.

The remaining 47% of Digitürk belonged to the US equity group Providence Equity Partners, and with the latter having announced it has completed its sales discussions, complete ownership of the company is set to pass into BeIN’s hands.

BeIN Media Group’s current assets include Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera set to buy Digiturk

Al Jazeera’s BeIN Media Group is close to buying Digiturk, according to Reuters, citing three sources familiar with the talks currently taking place between the two parties.

The negotiations are at an advanced stage and could be finalised in the next couple of weeks, with the deal being the acquisition of the whole of the Turkish company.

Digiturk is currently 53% owned by Turkey’s Çukurova Holding, with the remaining 47% held by the US private equity group Providence Equity Partners.

However, Çukurova’s stake in Digiturk was seized in 2013 by Turkey’s Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) due to its debts to the state agency.

Digiturk holds the lucrative rights to premier football league (Spor Toto Super League) until the end of the 2016-17 season.

BeIN Media Group operates beIN sports channels in Europe, Asia and the US.

Digiturk launches overseas OTT

Turkish satellite platform Digiturk is launching a new premium pay-TV service for viewers overseas.

The satcaster has selected a joint solution offered by AirTies and Octoshape to deliver the 80-channel OTT package that will be available on smart phones right through to big screen TVs.

The Digiturk service offers features such as 12 hour time shift for live TV, catch up TV, YouTube, internet radio, media playback over DLNA and USB connected devices. For local Turkish subscribers, Digiturk offers a traditional satellite bundle with an Octoshape OTT Web Player. For the international markets located beyond satellite reach, the AirTies Air STB facilitates an OTT/IPTV service over the public Internet.

“Watching an AirTies-Octoshape powered experience is equal to, or even better than, a traditional broadcast equivalent,” said Bulent Celebi, Chairman at AirTies Wireless Networks. “We are also proud of our OTT/IPTV deployment for Digiturk given the immediate value they’ll see in terms of increased consumer footprint and reduced time to market.”

“Delivering high quality OTT/IPTV programming on behalf of Digiturk will drive extended consumer engagement for them and ultimately top line revenue,” added Michael Koehn Milland, CEO of Octoshape. “Our joint implementation with Airties guarantees an always-on broadband TV service and represents a major opportunity for DTH providers to increase revenues by offering services in new markets.”

Digiturk is owned by the Savings Deposit and Insurance Fund (TMSF) with interest from a number of parties.

Digiturk continues to attract interest

Türk Telekom remains interested in acquiring the pay-TV platform Digiturk, according to Rami Aslan, the telco’s CEO.

Speaking to the Turkish media and quoted inHürriyet, he added that broadcasting content was very important for Türk Telekom and that Digiturk was one of the platforms offering the best content.

Asked whether Türk Telekom would participate in a tender for Digiturk, Aslan said it was too early to tell as the telco would have to examine the tender conditions.

Türk Telekom submitted a non-binding offer to buy a 53% stake in Türk Telekom last July. However, the Cukurova Group, whose assets were recently seized by Savings Deposit and Insurance Fund (TMSF), rejected it.

Altech Multimedia's hybrid HD STB for Digiturk

IBC 2013 — Digiturk, the leading satellite operator in Turkey, has commercially launched the next generation hybrid set-top box aimed at the evolving markets in Turkey and beyond. The hybrid set-top box was developed by its partner Altech Multimedia, a provider of innovative products and services to the Global Multimedia market.

Access Premium Content: Smartware, Irdeto CA and MS Playready

The new line of interactive and hybrid set-top boxes (DT-7103HD) developed by Altech Multimedia integrates TeleIDEA’s Smartware with the Irdeto Conditional Access system to secure Digiturk’s broadcast content. Microsoft Playready with Smooth streaming technology allow Digiturk customers to access Video on Demand content over IP. Furthermore the platform supports HD PVR functionality through the use of external USB connected storage media.

Combining two worlds: DVB Broadcast, HTML5, IP-VOD, Apps and HbbTV

Thanks to Altech Multimedia and the latest generation of software by TeleIDEA digiturk customers are now able to access DVB broadcasted content, combined with HTML5 and broadband services offering IP-VOD, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, and much more. Through its HbbTV extensions this solution is allowing additional flexibility as an open business and neutral technology platform. Once in the field, the set-top-box can easily be updated to fully support this wide range of OTT features by OTA software update allowing platform and customer flexibility through upgrade business models.

“For Digiturk it is essential to meet and continuously over exceed our customers’ expectations in order to secure their satisfaction, improve the user experience and grow our overall business. By connecting the two worlds of Broadcast and Broadband on content side and with innovative hybrid technology products we are on the right track to exactly achieve those goals.” explains Taylan Özsipahi, director of the set top box and conditional access department at Digiturk.

“In our opinion it is and has always been the synergic cooperation between content and technology companies that drives the entertainment markets and we are thrilled about Digiturk choosing Altech Multimedia with its partner TeleIDEA to further enhance the Digiturk success story by launching the next level consumer product category.” explains Bartolomeo Caputo, Managing Director of Altech Multimedia Europe.

Digitürk sale moves closer

The Savings Deposit Insurance Fund of Turkey (TMSF) is understood to be close to initiating a tender for the sale of Digitürk.

According to local and agency reports, the TMSF and Çukurova Holding are in fact looking at several options, including a direct sale or a tender.

The TMSF took control of Digitürk and several other assets belonging to the financially troubled Çukurova Holding back in May.

Since then, it has sold two TV interests – Show TV and Sky 360 TV – to Ciner and a consortium composed of the Turkish companies Kolin, Limak and Cengiz, in the former instance for TRY402 million (€153 million).

Digitürk has already attracted interest from a number of companies including Türk Telekom and D-smart.

Türk Telekom makes Digiturk move

Türk Telekom has made a non-binding offer for 53% of pay-TV operator Digiturk, the company has confirmed.

The company was one of a number of firms within the Çukurova group that were seized by the state bank the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF).

Çukurova was said to be $450 million in debt.

Providence currently owns 47% of the Digiturk platform. Canal+ had been linked as a potential second bidder, as had DTH rival D-smart.