Changes continue at Skylink

The M7 Group-owned DTH platform Skylink plans to introduce a number of important changes to its offer in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

According to Parabola, the first will see the withdrawal of the option for customers with a decoder card to pay for the service fee for a period of 24 months in Slovakia, though this will remain in place in the Czech Republic.

The second will be an increase in the fees charged for the mini packages CS Film and CS Mini.

As of August 1, the cost of receiving the two will increase from CZK99
(€3.68) to CZK109 in the Czech Republic and €3.60 to €4.10 in Slovakia.

Parabola notes that this will represent the third price increase for Skylink services this year, with the second one due to come into effect in July.

Skylink outlines hybrid box plans

The leading Czech and Slovak DTH platform Skylink is likely to start selling its hybrid set-top boxes this summer, with a promotional campaign taking place in the autumn.

Speaking to Parabola, Jaromir Glisnik, a member of the board at M7 Group, added that testing of the receivers is coming to an end, with some bugs still to be ironed out.

The first delivery of the receivers has already taken place in the Czech Republic. The receivers use the company’s own Evo platform, with the first manufacturer being Samsung.

According to Glisnik, the advantage of the platform is that it allows for the virtually unlimited scalability of services provided over the internet.

The company will carefully evaluate which are in demand, with the most successful ones then being incorporated into the platform.

Glisnik said that Skylink Live apps would allow its services to be accessed on mobile devices.

He also said that several variants of receiver could be introduced as the Evo platform expands.

In due course, Skylink services could be aimed beyond its DTH subscriber base to IPTV customers.

Separately, Skylink is making the movie channel AXN available to its subscribers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia on July 1.

Skylink preparing for VOD

The leading Czech and Slovak DTH platform Skylink is understood to have chosen Banaxi as its VOD partner.

Digizone reports that information it has received points to an agreement between the two parties, though negotiations are still apparently ongoing.

Skylink has delayed introducing VOD to its offer until services are first provided by other M7 Group platforms, operated in the Benelux region.

Banaxi was established in 2012 and provides VOD services in a number of countries including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary.

It entered into a partnership with the German company NetRange in 2013.

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.

Skylink loses customers

The Czech and Slovak DTH platform lost over 100,000 digital package customers in 2015, according to Jaromir Glisnik, a member of the board at M7 Group.

However, quoted by Parabola, he added that it also acquired nearly 60,000 pay-TV subscribers in the year, which was a record for the company.

Glisnik in addition said that Skylink’s digital package customer losses were mainly in the Czech Republic and it was ending the year with a total of 1.9 million in the two countries.

Large fine for M7 in Czech Republic

The Czech Telecom Office (CTU) has fined M7 Group, which operates the DTH platforms Skylink and CS Link, CZK9.5 million (€350,660) for failing to inform the regulator about the commencement of its activities in the country.

In a statement, the CTU says that: “the amount of the fine reflects the seriousness of the offence in the length of time during which the company carried out its communication activities without authorisation”.

It adds: “the long-term illegal status significantly negatively affected the statistical data for the years 2013 and 2014, which was dealt with not only by the CTO but also other government authorities, the judiciary and by international organisations and the European Union”.

The CTU also says that M7 Group had operated in the Czech Republic since the beginning of 2013 but only fulfilled its obligations on May 28 this year.

M7 Group’s DTH services in the Czech Republic are distributed by Astra and received by a tenth of the country’s population.

Czech DTH market consolidates

T-Mobile has decided to close its TV service in the Czech Republic on November 30.

In a statement, it says that its existing T-Mobile TV customers will be able to switch to the Skylink service, operated by M7 Group, for no additional charge.

This has been confirmed by Skylink, which says that T Mobile TV customers will not need to modify or change their reception equipment and the conditions and prices for services will remain unchanged.

T-Mobile has been present in the Czech market since 1996 and has been part of the Deutsche Telekom group since 2002.

As of June 30 this year, it was the leading provider of mobile services in the Czech Republic, with more than 5.9 million customers.

The closure of T-Mobile TV marks an important change in the Czech Republic’s DTH landscape.

Skylink, into which its sister platform CS Link was merged, remains the market leader, with services also provided by UPC DTH’s freeSAT and Digi TV.

Skylink tops platform chart

Skylink remains by far the most popular DTH platform in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

According to the latest figures compiled byParabola, there were three DTH platforms in the Czech Republic at the end of Q2, namely Skylink (which now also includes its sister service CS link), Digi TV and freeSat.

Skyink had an 84% market share, with 1.41 million active cards, followed by Digi TV with 160,000 subscribers (10%) and freeSAT with 104,400 (6%).

Meanwhile, in Slovakia, which had four platforms, two of which were owned by the same company (Slovak Telekom), Skylink had 710,000 active smart cards (67%), Digi TV 200,000 subscribers (19%), Magio Sat 90,000 subscribers (8%) and freeSAT 65,300 subscribers (6%).

Overall, Skylink had 2,120,000 active cards and a market share of 77% in the two countries.

Digi was in second place with 360,000 customers (13%), followed by freeSAT with 167,700 subscribers (6%).

Skylink launches Hungarian service

The DTH platform Skylink has launched a package aimed at Hungarian speakers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

It consists of 11 of the most popular channels in Hungary – M1, M2, Duna, Duna World, RTL Klub, TV2, RTL ll, Viasat 3, Cool, Film+ and Muzsika TV, along with 20 more channels already carried by Skylink that offer Hungarian soundtracks.

As a stand alone service, the package costs CZK103 (€3.95) a months or CZK1,133 (€43.45) a year to receive, with a service charge already included in the price.

However, if combined with the Multi, Kombi, HD Plus or Multi HD packages it can be re4ceived for CZK257 (€9.95) until the end of 2014.

In all cases, the prices include VAT. The package is distributed via Astra 3B at 23.5 degrees East, with all the channels broadcast in SD and employing MPEG-4 compression.

Skylink points out that reception requires a HD satellite receiver, preferably one with the Skylink Ready certificate.

Skylink is owned by the Luxembourg-based M7 Group and the leading DTH platform in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Skylink targets Hungarian speakers

The DTH platform Skylink will start offering Hungarian channels in November, according to Jaromir Glisnik, a member of the board of the M7 Group.

Speaking to Parabola, he added that it is currently preparing a package of basic public and commercial Hungarian programmes for its subscribers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Although Glisnik could not specify the channels, as negotiations are still ongoing with broadcasters, he said there would be 7-10 and offered as a premium package, costing a maximum of CZK100 or €4 a month but free to some subscribers.

Separately, Parabola reports that Skylink, which is the leading DTH platform in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, secured 102,000 new customers in the last 12 months.

Skylink seeks more subs

The leading Czech and Slovak DTH platform Skylink, which is backed by the Luxembourg-based M7 Group, has introduced two special offers.

The first, valid from today (October 1) until the end of November, gives customers the opportunity to order its Mixbox package, consisting of nine channels, four of which are in HD, for half the regular price.

This translates into CZK729 (€28.3) when ordered for six months and CZK1,458 for a whole year.

The second special offer gives customers the chance to purchase the Kombi and HBO packages for a discount of 25% from now until the end of the year.

The former, consisting of 53 channels, 11 of which are in HD, costs CZK290 a month if ordered for a whole year.

HBO Standard and HBO MaxPak are meanwhile included in the HBO offer.

Skylink is also making its HD MPEG-4 receivers available for a third of the usual price to customers who purchase any basic Skylink package, including Kombi with a 25% discount, for a year.

M7 Group’s Skylink tests Hungarian DTH bouquet

Luxembourg-based M7 Group, owner of the Skylink DTH platform, has started test transmissions of a new DTH bouquet aimed at Hungary.

The M7 Group has fired up a new transponder for distribution of Nat Geo HD and Nat Geo Wild HD on the Astra position at 23.5 degrees East, which was previously used by the now defunct Bulgarian DTH platform Satellite BG.

The group is now also using the transponder for test transmissions of a large number of Hungarian TV channels encrypted in Irdeto. The list counts 22 TV channels, including both public and private broadcasters and three radio stations.

In addition, the broadcaster has put up a further 16 virtual channels consisting of international broadcasters including Eurosport HD, History HD, Nickelodeon TV Paprika, Disney Channel, Minimax, Duck TV, MGM, Viasat Explorer, Viasat History, Viasat Nature, JimJam, AXN, Filmbox HD, and Spectrum HD.

The appearance of the channels was first noted by the Czech Parabola website, which has full details of the transponders now in pilot phase. M7′s Jaromír Glisník told the website that the virtual channels are there to provide a Hungarian language EPG. With regards to a future possible Hungarian DTH service, he said that this is “a long term option” of which he could not disclose any details.

The M7 Group currently owns and operates DTH platforms in The Netherlands (Canaal Digitaal), Belgium (TV Vlaanderen and Telesat), Austria (Austria HD), and Skylink for Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Mixed fortunes for Skylink

The leading Czech and Slovak DTH platform Skylink currently has 2.1 million customers, a total little changed on this time last year.

However, speaking to Digizone, Jaromir Glisnik, a member of the board at M7, added that within that period the number receiving Skylink Kombi package increased by 30%.

At the same time, the total receiving HD and paid services currently stands at over 100,000 and 300,000 respectively.

Skylink has been criticised for decreasing the total number of HD channels it offers. This, said Glisnik, has been down to the collapse of the Bulgarian DTH platform Satellite BG, with which it shared capacity.

The overall impact on Skylink’s customer base has nevertheless been minimal.