August 10, 2009
A price war has broken about between RCS/RDS and Romtelecom, which between them account for all but 300,000 of Romanias 2.2 million DTH subscribers.
According to ZF, RCS/RDS is now offering its Digi TV service, which costs from as little as RON14 (3.33) a month, free of charge for the first 1-3 months. It has also waived installation charges.
Although Romtelecoms Dolce secured 250,000 subscribers in the 12 months to June 30 this year, Digi TV, the market leader, gained only 100,000.
Even so, tough economic conditions have led to a slowdown at both platforms, with Dolce gaining only 56,000 more subscribers in Q2, as opposed to 81,000 in Q1.
They nevertheless continue to do much better than UPCs Focus Sat, which gained only an additional 500 customers in the second quarter.
