Romania ranks among the last in Europe for the digitization of TV services, with only 42 percent of Romanians receiving digital television services, according to SES, a satellite services company. SES wants to create an action group with other players, such as TVR, to give an impulse to digitization.

The only country in Europe completely digitized is Finland, followed by Spain (98 percent) and France (98 percent), according to a study made by SES on 25 countries.

Romania ranks 30th of 35 European countries, with a digitization rate of 42 percent, followed by Lithuania (39 percent) and Bosnia (36 percent). The main reason is the Romanian Government's decision in 2010 to delay the TV digitization program until 2015.

“We opened an office in Bucharest. We don’t do that everywhere. We want to show that this country has potential for us. There are few players in the market in Romania but we believe that this country is large enough and has an important economic future”, said Martin Ornass-Kubacki, Vice President & Chief Regional of SES for the Central and Eastern Europe.

Kubacki also said that the Romanian authorities should not lose sight of the fact that satellites represent the best alternative and also a complementary way of distribution for terrestrial TV signal.

SES' local partner is Pro TV, part of Central European Media Enterprises, which runs Pro TV, Pro TV International, Acasa, Acasa Gold, Pro Cinema, Sport.ro and MTV Romania.

In August 2010, the Romanian Executive decided to delay the deadline for termination of analog television transmission until the beginning of 2015. The postponement was justified by the crisis, which meant viewers found it difficult to afford the new equipment needed for digital TV.

Ioana Toader, ioana.toader@romania-insider.com

(photo source: sxc.hu)