Tough times for Serbian cable

Cable operators in Serbia pay much more in copyright fees than their counterparts elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe despite achieving a major reduction this year.

Speaking at Media Platform 2015, Andrija Bednarik, chairman of the board at the Serbian cable association PUKOS, said that prior to the beginning of July they were required to pay 8.8% of their income, based on the number of subscribers and subscription fee.

Now, royalties for copyright and related rights amount to just over 3% of their income, with the societies Sokoj, OPPS and PI, and OFA receiving 2%, 1% and 0.158% respectively.

Speaking generally about the market in Serbia, Bednarik added that despite growing in the previous few years, the number of pay-TV homes fell from 1.55 million in 2013 to 1.5 million last year, with penetration down from 62% to 60%.

Cable homes fell from 1.09 million to 931,000, while DTH homes rose from 216,000 to 246,000.
IPTV homes accounted for the remainder and grew by 5% last year.

Meanwhile, pay-TV revenues increased from €120 million in 2013 to €123 millon last year, with cable accounting for 64% of the total.

Serbia completes DVB-T2 rollout

Serbia’s national broadcasting agency ETV has completed the third and final phase of its transition to DVB-T2.

In the process, which began back in 2010, Rohde & Schwarz has supplied the agency with high and medium power transmitters, as well as gap fillers.

It also saw ETV chose a consortium consisting of Rohde & Schwarz Austria, Kathrein and Comutel to set up three new multiplexers.

Serbia’s transition to DVB-T2, reaching 98% of households, is due to be completed this June.

Serbian pay-TV: the stats

The number of pay-TV subscribers has grown steadily in Serbia in the last few years and amounted to 1.55 million in 2013.

According to the Cable Operators Association of Serbia, it stood at 1.44 million a year earlier and less than one million (922,000) in 2008.

Cable penetration among the population has also increased, rising from 19.9% in 2012 to 21.62% last year. Cable accounted for 70% (1.09 million) of pay-TV subscribers, with DTH and IPTV claiming 216,000 and 244,000 customers respectively.

Interestingly, while the figures for cable and IPTV were up on the previous year’s 1.04 million and 177,000, that for DTH was lower than the 223,000 in 2012.

The percentage of cable homes receiving digital services also continues to grow, up from 11% in 2011 to 14% in 2012 and 18% last year. Digital cable services offer 78 channels, compared to analogue’s 54.

Pay-TV operators generated revenues of €125 million last year (€109 million in 2012), with cable accounting for 67%, IPTV 19% and DTH 14%.

Meanwhile, there were 1.4 million broadband connections in Serbia in 2013, Revenues, up 20% on a year earlier, accounted for 14.5% of the electronic communications market.

Towercom to assist Serbian digitisation

Towercom is to play a role in Serbia’s transition to digital broadcasting.

Quoting the Slovak transmission company,Parabola reports that, along with the consulting form Aspiro, it is advising its Serbian counterpart ETV on the transition.

Serbia will be employing the DVB-T2 standard and has set June 17, 2015 as its ASO date.

The transition will in part be funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which will provide €24 million

Serbian ASO moves closer

Serbia now expects to complete the transition to digital broadcaster by mid-2014, or almost one year earlier than previously planned.

Speaking in a statement to RTV Pink and quoted by Balkans.com, Rasim Ljajic, the country’s deputy PM and minister of foreign and internal trade and telecommunications, said that a meeting held today (August 16) established the dynamics of digitisation.

This now envisaged that 60% of Serbia would be served by digital signals by October 1 and a further 20% by the end of the year.

Ljajic spoke of the many benefits that digitisation would bring to the population.

The most obvious one was a greater choice of programming in a market where over half (53%) of households still had access to only 2-3 channels.