Orange outage in Poland

Orange has suffered a massive outage in many parts of Poland.

As a result, report several local news outlets, many of its customers have been unable to make calls or access the internet.

Company spokesman Wojtek Jabczynski sent a tweet late afternoon on Thursday (July 7) apologising for the incident and saying that it was working to fix the issue as quickly as possible.

The outage began around 17.00 on July 7 and was most pronounced in Warsaw. However, it was also widely felt in a number of other locations including Katowice, Poznan, Szczecin and the tri-city of Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot.

Orange is the incumbent telco in Poland and the country’s leading provider of IPTV services.

The outage was reportedly resolved at 02.00 local time on Friday, July 8.

Cord cutting now a concern in Poland

Nearly a third of cable and DTH subscribers in Poland are thinking about cord cutting.

This, according to the findings of the latest report, Projekt Cyfrowizja ll, published by MEC, is almost double the percentage of DTT viewers looking to take out a cable or DTH subscription.

More male (30%) than female (26%) subscribers are considering cord cutting (27% of total respondents), with the most heavily represented age groups (37%) being 35-44, followed by 25-34 (32%).

Significantly, the greatest preference to cord cutting was shown by subscribers to nc+, with 35% have considered the option in the past year. This was followed by customers of Cyfrowy Polsat (23%), while in the cable sector cord cutting was considered the most by UPC Polska subscribers.

Cable customers cited their main reason for considering cord cuttings as being cost (60%), while among DTH customers it was even higher (74%).

Those who did cut the cord in the last year cited (over 50%) the attractive free DTT offer available and around half identified cost as the deciding factor in their switch to DTT.

Subscribers not thinking about cord cutting identify internet, cost and access to sports channels as the three main factors keeping them as paying customers.

Interestingly, among the 15% of DTT viewers considering upgrading to a paid offer, the most represented age groups are 15-24 and 25-34.

Poland’s nc+ holds steady

The Polish DTH platform nc+ ended H1 with 2.1 million post-paid subscribers, down 100,000 on the same period last year.

Its ARPU, at PLN68 (€16.4), was little changed on the PLN67.6 posted a year earlier, while revenues in the first six months of the year were down from PLN1,072 million in H1 2014 to PLN1,041 million this year.

EBITDA for the period was PLN210 million (PLN221 million) and TVN’s share of nc+’s profit amounted to PLN29 million (PLN22 million).

TVN’s revenues in H1 were PLN808 million (PLN798 million in H1 2014) and adjusted EBITDA PLN265 million (PLN262 million). Its net profit was PLN116 million (PLN126 million).

Separately, Christian Anting has been appointed to TVN’s management board with immediate effect.

He will be responsible for all of the company’s digital & e-commerce activities, including online entertainment and OTT services, e-commerce and retail, as well as TVN Ventures, the company’s digital venture arm.

His responsibilities also include TVN’s international channel distribution activities, including the group’s international channels iTVN and iTVNExtra.

Multimedia gains digital TV customers

The Polish cable operator Multimedia Polska ended the second quarter with 353,000 subscribers to its digital TV services, or 9,000 more than three months earlier.

At the same time, analogue TV subscriber total fell by 12,000 over the same period to 327,000.

Digital TV ARPU amounted to PLN48.76 (€11.57), compared to PLN50.41 three months earlier, while analogue TV ARPU was PLN29.41 (PLN29.54) and premium programme ARPU PLN28.29 (PLN26.37).

Total TV revenues in Q2 were PLN86.904 million, of which digital TV accounted for 58% of the total.

Vectra gains digital TV customers

Poland’s second largest cable operator Vectra had over 900,000 subscribers at the end of the second quarter, with almost two-thirds receiving digital TV services.

Data supplied by the operator to Wirtualne Media shows that Vectra’s subscriber total as of June 30 stood at 909,424, compared to 871,687 a year earlier.

Of these, 589,265 (514,604) opted for digital TV and 247,894 (301,294) analogue TV services.

Although Vectra’s fixed broadband subscriber total rose significantly over the year (478,376 v 426,323), those choosing mobile broadband fell slightly (26,903 v 27,468).

The telephony subscriber total meanwhile rose from 156,657 to 175,606 in the year to June 30.

Polish cablecos gain market share

Poland’s five largest cable operators all saw their share of the fixed-line internet market grow in 2013.

According to a report by the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE), UPC Polska’s share rose from 12.8% in 2012 to 14% last year.

The corresponding figures for Vectra, Multimedia Polska, Inea and Toya were 5.8% and 6.5%, 5.4% and 5.9%, 1.3% and 1.7% and 1.3% and 1.5% respectively.

TP, the incumbent and market leader, also saw a slight increase in its share, up from 30.4% to 31.9%, with the main losers being smaller ISPs.

The UKE notes that the Polish telecom market was worth PLN40.15 billion (€9.65 billion) in 2013, or 3.7% less than a year earlier

Vectra grows digital TV base

The Polish cable operator Vectra ended 2013 with 816,900 TV subscribers, of whom 551,600 opted for digital services.

The latter figure, according to data supplied to Wirtualne Media, was 19.2% more than a year earlier and contrasted with the analogue total, down by 15.7% to 265,300 over the same period.

Vectra’s fixed internet subscriber total meanwhile stood at 448,848 at the end of 2013, up from 379,995 a year earlier.

On the other hand, its mobile internet subscriber total fell, from 28,564 to 28,307, in 2013.

Its telephony subscriber total at year’s end was 163,920, compared to 140,949 at the end of 2012.

Vectra, which vies for second place in Poland’s cable market with Multimedia Polska, had in total 877,435 subscribers at the end of 2013, up from 822,483 a year earlier.

Poland's Vectra adds 89,000 digital TV subscribers in 2013

(Już 550 tys. klientów Vectry korzysta z telewizji cyfrowej)

Thursday, February 6th, 2014 

According to the website Wirtualnemedia.pl, Polish cable TV operator Vectra ended 2013 with around 880,000 pay TV subscribers, up 55,000 from 822,000 at the end of 2012. Digital TV subscribers grew by 89,000 over the year, an increase of 19.2%.

Number of subscribers at the end of:

                   2013     2012
                -------  -------
Total           877,435  822,483
  Digital TV    551,585  462,742
  Analogue TV   265,340  314,625

DTT reception grows in Poland

Nearly one in for homes in Poland is now watching DTT services despite DTH still being the most popular form of digital TV reception.

Quoting data produced by TNS Polska for the public broadcaster TVP, Gazeta Wyborcza reports that as of this November 41% of homes, or one percentage more than in April, received DTH services, while 30%, or four percent more than in April, opted for cable.

DTT meanwhile grew from 13% to 23% over the same period, with the country having completed ASO in July.

A further 2% chose to receive FTA DTH services. Following ASO, one in ten viewers decided to stop receiving DTH or cable, while 81% chose to continue receiving their existing offers.

At the same time, 30% decided to opt for a service other than DTT. Although the majority opted for DTH, this also included FTA DTH, cable and IPTV.

Most homes (74%) questioned in the study had only one TV set, while one in five said that had 2+ and 3% were without one.

Poland invites DTT bids

Poland’s Office of Electronic Communications (UKE) has announced the availability of frequencies in the 174-230 MHz for the use of national digital TV services in then DVB-T standard.

It adds that following an application from one company for use of the frequencies, it is inviting others from stakeholders to submit theirs to the president of the UKE before November 19.

At present there are four DTT multiplexes operating in Poland. Three (MUX1, MUX2 and MUX3) offer FTA TV channels, while a fourth carries encrypted mobile TV services.

Vectra launches VOD

The Polish cable operator Vectra has launched an on demand service.

The offer consists of both a free and paid element, with the former including most TV channels already available to digital subscribers and latter hundreds of film titles, including those 4-6 months after their premieres.

In the case of the free element, the more comprehensive package subscribers already receive the bigger will be their VOD choice.

For instance, those who already opt for the premium packages Film GO and Super Film GO, as well as the VIP package, will have access to HBO OD.

In the paid element, new titles will cost from PLN6 (€1.43) to PLN11, while older ones will be available for PLN6 and adult content for PLN8.

According to Vectra, the range of movies it provides for its viewers as a whole is being widened following agreements with a number of distributors including Warner Bros and Walt Disney Studio.

Vectra is the third largest cable operator in Poland after UPC Polska and Multimedia Polska. Its new VOD service will initially be made available to viewers in the town of Elblag.