Skylink looks to OTT and HD

Skylink will launch OTT services in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in the next month or two, according to Jaromir Glisnik, member of the board of directors, M7 Group.

He added that it would use hybrid satellite/IP receivers and that such services had already been made available by the M7 Group in Benelux and Austria.

Glisnik also said that this would be the last month that Skylink uses MPEG-2 and that it will switch over entirely to DVBS-2 by 2017.

He spoke at some length about the importance of HD services for Skylink.

DTH services serve 69% of Slovak HDTV homes and 49% of Slovak TV homes as a whole.

At the same time, Skylink serves 49% of HDTV homes from Astra 23.5 degrees East) and 33% of Slovak TV homes as a whole.

He added that Skylink is oldest and largest DTH platform in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with 700,000 customers in the latter.

It offers 130 TV channels, 48 of which are in HD, and plans to provide HD versions of all the most popular channels by the end of this year.

Skylink is available to every home in Slovakia, with costs starting at €2.60 a month.

Russia takes to HD

Demand for HD is growing rapidly in Russia, with 10.2 million homes already receiving services as of the beginning of this year.

Quoting J’son & Partners,Vedomosti reports that while the number of pay-TV subscribers grew by only 7.1% to 36.7 million in 2014, HD penetration in the pay-TV subscriber base increased from 20.2% to 27.1% during the year.

Tricolor TV remained the leading provider of HD services in Russia, claiming a 45% share of the market as of the beginning of this year. Rostelecom was in second place with 25%, followed by Vimpelcom with 10%.

Meanwhile, other statistics, produced by Telecom Daily, give Tricolor TV a 41% share, with Rostelecom and MTS claiming 25% and 11.5% respectively as of the beginning of the second quarter.

They also say that as of Q1, there were already 12 million HDTV subscribers in the country, up from 9.9 million a year earlier.

Boost for HD viewing in Russia

Russia’s Tricolor TV has seen a spectacular growth in the number of its subscribers watching HD services since the launch of the Express-AT1 satellite exactly a year ago.

The latter allowed the operator to launch full-scale broadcasting in Siberia, the Urals and Far East, the result of which has been a 70% increase, equivalent to 150,000 households, in the total in the region.

Express-AT1 has allowed Tricolor TV to broadcast almost four times as many channels as previously and now viewers in Siberia are offered 194, 30 of which are in HD.

In a separate development, the Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC) has announced that the Express-AM6 satellite, located at 53 degrees East, is now operational.

HD takes off in Russia

HD services are growing in popularity in Russia and will be watched in 24.5 million homes by the beginning of 2019.

Quoting a study by J’son & Partners Consulting on the audience of linear HD channels, TelecomDaily and AKTR report that the subscriber base for HD channels in the country stood at 9.65 million in the first half of this year, up from 7.1 million in the corresponding period in 2013. This will rise to 24.5 million in the next five years.

As of H1 this year, Tricolor TV had the highest share of the HD market (39.6%), followed by Rostelecom (27.6%), VimpelCom (11%), MTS (8.9%) and Orion Express (6.9%). Interestingly, HD channels no longer give operators a competitive advantage and are seen as a basic service. Rather, this may be offered by 4K video libraries, such as the one operated by ivi.ru.

Ultra HD broadcasting is unlikely to start in Russia before 2016-2017.

Volia drops price of HD service

Ukrainian cable operator Volia has dropped the price of its bundled HD and high-speed internet offering.
The operator has dropped the price of its Optimal HD package from UAH202 (€17.35) to UAH160 for customers that take its 100Mbps internet offering.

Optimal HD comprises 150 channels, including HD services Fox HD, Animal Planet HD, Discovery HD Showcase, Volia Kino HD, National Geographic HD, Nat Geo Wild HD, Travel Channel HD, MyZen HD, Fashion One HD and Outdoor Channel HD.

Doordarshan to offer HD channels

FTA public broadcaster, Doordarshan will now be offering HD television channels as well for their terrestrial service.  While HD channels are available in India through DTH platforms, this would be the first time they will be aired through terrestrial network.

The DTH service, which comes under public broadcaster, Prasar Bharthi will also be adding 10 private channels to its free-to-air bouquet. According to a report in Indian newspaper, Deccan Chronicle, Doordarshan has already begun its installation work. M Anandan, deputy director (engineering) Doordarshan said, “With an aim to keep in pace with current technological trends, Prasar Bharathi has asked Doordarshan to broadcast two of our channels on the high definition platform, for which we have started installation of HD equipment in our transmitter in Chennai.”

The HD broadcast which is said to start once the installation gets over in around 3 months will first be offered to the metro cities in the country – Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi and then move onto other parts of the country. Anandan also announced that at least 10 to 12 private channels will be offered under HD.