Also the number of cable subscribers grew by 2.7% to 3.67 million, while the number of satellite (DTH) subscribers rose by 3% to 2.21 million in the first six months of 2012.
The National Authority for Management and Communication Administration and Regulation (ANCOM, www.ancom.org.ro) issued preliminary statistical data for the first six months of 2012 at the International Digital Forum in Bucharest at the beginning of December.
“Digitalisation gains ground in the area of TV programme retransmission as well. The latest statistical data gathered and processed by ANCOM show that there were 3.3 million subscribers to digital programme retransmission services at the end of June 2012, 16% more as compared to 30 June 2011, i.e. a share of more than 50% within the total subscribers to retransmission services.
In one year, the number of subscribers to digital cable networks registered a significant rise, by 49%, exceeding 1 million, whereas the number of DTH subscribers grew by almost 5%, to 2.21 million”, the president of ANCOM, Mr. Cătălin Marinescu, said at the International Digital Forum.
The TV market is also continuing its shifts. TVR Info became TVR News and started to air mostly programmes from Euronews (www.euronews.com) mid-November. TVR Info is part of the Romanian Television Society (SRTv, www.tvr.ro) and was suspended on August 15 due to the financial problems faced by the public television. A partnership between the Romanian public television and Euronews was announced beginning October so as the TVR News might air Euronews programs in Romanian language soon.
Children television Megamax opened in November 19 as part of the portfolio of Chello Central Europe (www.chellomedia.com).The channel is the sister channel of Minimax and it will be dubbed in Romanian. Another channel from Chello’s portfolio, Romantica (www.romantica.tv) became Film Café starting 1 December, following the need to rebrand the channel it in a more profitable way.
The Swiss company Ringier (www.ringier.com) left Dogan Media International S.A. which operates Kanal D channel (www.kanald.ro). Ringier renounced of its 16.82% shares from the 25% that it has in 2007,when it got involved in the shareholders.
